A lot is being said and written about how the primary is over (or should be over) and that we have a nominee. There are some folks that keep reminding us that the math is daunting or impossible, and that our uphill battle will not be won. Well, 2 things about that: they are missing the forest for the trees and/or they don’t seem to understand this revolution.
It seems that the entire point to them is the horse race, both primary and general, and therefore, they are declaring victory in the first act and lobbying for support for the second. However, for a lot of us, the revolution is a lot more important than just this election. This is and always has been about the direction of the Party and the country. To co-opt some phrasing: this is about taking our Party and our country back. Back from the powerful interests that don’t look out for Main Street. Back from the pay to play nature of our political system. Back from the lobbyists, big business, big finance, big energy, corporate media, the M-I-S-C (the war is good for business folks), and the big money folks that those in power seem to kowtow to nowadays more often than not. This is about influence – our influence – the we the people portion of the country.
There’s a reason that Bernie speaks of Not Me, Us. He knows, to borrow another phrase, that ‘it takes a village’ to foment the changes we need. We have been lulled into complacency by doubt, cynicism, fear, and the seeming futility of being able to effect change. But slowly over the past decade or so, we have been waking up again. The establishment hasn’t been working for us at large for a while now, and we’re angry. We’re thrown bones every so often; generally that’s been to placate us, and to demonstrate that they are ‘working’ for us, but when you look at a lot of policy over the past couple decades, the big interests are always served in some way, and we get the leftovers, most of which have been extremely modest.
Sure, the opposition party has been obstructionist on a level unimagined, but stuff did get done and gawd knows, quite a bit of it hasn’t been very good. Increased surveillance, still mostly unfettered, the 2012 NDAA which was right wing authoritarian crap in some of its sections, secretive trade deals are still being championed, our foreign policy is still tilted toward overusing intervention and still flirting with regime change – and this is not an exhaustive list. These things are fairly recent, and have had the support of at least some of the party and the ones that have been signed into law have been so by our current president. Our Party seems so afraid they will be branded obstructionist themselves, that in many cases, they capitulate in the name of getting stuff done. We don’t even negotiate well anymore. Instead of starting at our ideal point – ‘what do we want’ – we start in the middle with ‘what can we get’ and we move rightward in negotiation from there. It’s no wonder most policy has big interest fingerprints on it – they are the ones with the ear and the bucks – and heaven forbid we ruffle our benefactor’s feathers. We’ve stopped fighting the fights that need fighting and now only fight the fights we can win, seemingly in the name of simply accomplishing anything.
Once upon a time, I used to be of the opinion that the best way to effect change was from the inside, but over the past few years I have come to the conclusion that in order to effect real change, we must use heavy pressure both from the inside *and* the outside. Bernie has given us the vehicle to do both with his – our - revolution.
We’ve been ready to stand up and in many cases have been since Occupy; what we’ve lacked is a champion, and in Bernie, we’ve found one. He is bringing out the better angels in us and telling us we can make the difference; we can effect positive change; we can take back our Party and our country if we keep at it. And he is bringing in folks who had altogether given up on voting as well as inspiring a lot of young folks to get involved. That right there says to me he’s already won; he’s energized and inspired the hell out of us. We are legion and we can make a big difference if we keep it up.
He gives us help on the inside, in that having larger enthusiastic turnout can affect the down tickets and give us some more friendlies in Congress and the Party. We need to show up for them – for us. We also need to keep agitating big time from the outside, via not only protests and directly pressuring those in power, but also by running for office, no matter how small the office, and donating and GOTVing for those of us that do so.
Also on the outside, we also need to also talk to our friends and neighbors and coworkers about some of the policies we want. I found during my time in Louisiana among some of the rightest wingers of them all, that when you can discuss policy without the political factor – just talk about it in a nuts and bolts style – what it is, what it means for them – a lot of them are open to things like single payer and transitioning to renewable energy (as long as we look out for the workers). A lot of them are struggling just like we are, and when the framing is changed, even ever so slightly, it can sway folks. Once more coopting and paraphrasing – we need to be the revolution we want to see.
That is why it is terribly important that we go all 50 states and beyond, math be damned. We need to have as many delegates inside the convention as we do people outside the convention protesting the DLC wing of the Party. We need a continual show of non-violent force – of mass – of people power. They can perhaps sink our candidate this time around, and they can arrest us, and pepper spray us, and condescendingly lecture to us, but they will not stop us – not if we keep on coming.
#FeelTheBern