Sanderistas continue to organize

Christian Science Monitor -   If all goes according to plan, [Bernie Sanders'] revolution will live on. The first step came Wednesday night, at 2,600 house parties around the country, where supporters of the Vermont senator gathered to watch his call to action, via live-stream.

“Real change never, ever takes place from the top on down,” Sanders said, reprising a theme from his presidential campaign. “It always takes place from the bottom on up, when millions of people come together and demand fundamental change in the country.”

Change, he said, will come by electing like-minded candidates to office, from school boards to the US Senate. It will also come through ballot measures in the states. And it will come by holding Democrats’ feet to the fire in implementing the party platform, the most progressive in party history, he said.

The new group’s tax status, as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, prevents Sanders – as an elected official – from playing a role in running the group. The tax status also proved a sore point with many in Our Revolution’s small staff, who resigned over the weekend over Sanders’s decision to bring in his campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, as president. It was Mr. Weaver who determined the new group’s tax status, which allows acceptance of undisclosed and unlimited “dark money,” potentially from billionaires.

During his campaign, Sanders railed against billionaires, and prided himself on raising more than $200 million in donations that averaged just $27.

But to the 30 Sanders supporters gathered in a row house in Washington's Mount Pleasant neighborhood Wednesday night, Our Revolution’s organizing woes didn’t matter. These were “Sanderistas,” as one attendee called herself, thrilled to hear their leader speak once more.