March 24, 2016

Word: Why Bernie stays in the race

DD Guttenplan, Nation - Keeping Clinton from reverting to a neoliberal default isn’t the only reason for Sanders to stay in the race—or the most important. As Sanders has always said, his aim is “a political revolution.” Winning the nomination would be nice, but is neither necessary nor sufficient to bring that about. Building a nationwide, durable network of mobilized, active supporters prepared to keep working for universal healthcare, a living wage, ending Wall Street welfare and America’s endless wars—including the drug wars—in numbers great enough to occupy the Democratic Party and take it back from its corporate funders is absolutely crucial. So, too, is the difficult work of stitching together movements like #BlackLivesMatter, Fight for 15, immigrant rights, climate justice, and voting rights into a coalition prepared to march together, vote together, and transform our politics—and our country. Yet that is the task we face.

Are the odds against us? Of course. That’s what it means to live inside a rigged system. But remember where we were only a few months ago. With each primary victory—and each close call—Sanders shows us our own strength. With each packed rally we see the claim that socialism is un-American exposed as a lie, that a world where no one starves, healthcare is not rationed by wealth, and energy companies aren’t allowed to rape the earth for profit and leave the rest of us to take the consequences is not only possible but popular.

So we fight on—to July, November, and beyond. For the nomination, so long as that remains a possibility. For our country—which may in November face as stark a choice as any in our lifetimes. And for our future....

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel that it will all be for nothing if Hillary wins in November. I will not vote for her. I will write in Bernie and I hope the rest of Bernies supporters do also. Only then can the Democratic party learn from its past mistakes. I'm to old to vote for someone just out of fear from the republican party.

Anonymous said...

If Bernie is truly interested in establishing a movement, then maybe it's time he step back, call a spade a spade by renouncing neo-liberal agenda of the Dems, and then encourage his admiring followers to shift their momentum to Jill Stein. No, but Bernie will stay in because his is not a movement but rather a money generating PR campaign. As long as the bucks keep flowing in, and his financing agreement with the DLC remains entact, Bernie will keep running.
Paul Street summed it up today:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/24/notes-from-an-ultra-radical-perfectionist/

Anonymous said...

Bernie has done a huge disservice to his followers. He had the chance to take out Wall Street in the very form and fashion of Queen Hillary herself. He had ample room for attack, yet found only excuses not to. Classic snatching of defeat from the jaws of victory. Wooden Hillary was vulnerable on all fronts.

The result will be an ever more jaded and disillusioned bunch of followers left deserted at the altar of political salvation and the despair of democracy.