2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumThis is what the revolution looks like: Former Sanders staffers are launching a new PAC aimed at
Last edited Fri Apr 29, 2016, 01:38 PM - Edit history (1)
midterm Congressional elections.
Bernie Sanders has called his campaign a political revolution. The word revolution is poorly defined in the political science literature, and its used so often in popular culture as to strip it of any concrete meaning. Generally, though, people take revolution to mean wholesale change, a rupture in the status quo. To his credit, Sanders has been quite clear about what he means by the phrase:
What does a political revolution look like? It means that 80 percent of the people vote in national elections, not 40 percent. It means that billionaires cant make unlimited campaign contributions and buy and sell politicians. It means that the U.S. Government represents the needs of all the people, not just the 1 percent and their lobbyists.
snip
Zack Exley, who helped found the PAC, explained it well: We learned
that the grassroots are better qualified to run electoral campaigns than Democratic party operatives
They just need to be given the tools, the data, the offices and the structure to succeed. We want a supermajority in Congress, Exley added, that is fighting for jobs, criminal justice reform and the environment.
Sanders has yet to endorse the group, but I suspect he will after the election and he should. His campaign has shown that the country will respond to a progressive platform if its couched in the right terms. Sanders has outraised the Clinton machine for three consecutive months on the backs of small individual donors and despite being far behind in the delegate count. Hes amassed a two-million-person donor list, which can be used to leverage support for progressive House candidates nationwide. That Sanders, a relative unknown on the national stage a year ago, could accomplish this much this quickly says something significant about the mood of the country.
http://www.salon.com/2016/04/28/this_is_what_the_revolution_looks_like_former_sanders_staffers_are_launching_a_new_pac_aimed_at_midterm_congressional_elections/
msongs
(70,393 posts)Dawgs
(14,755 posts)Jackie Wilson Said
(4,176 posts)djean111
(14,255 posts)like they tried to do with OWS.
Ferd Berfel
(3,687 posts)Bet he comes out against this approach
snowy owl
(2,145 posts)ancianita
(39,093 posts)Jitter65
(3,089 posts)trash the entire Democratic party. Really going to hurt us down ticket where people are making fence choices.
All of this may be fine for getting the party set for 2018 or 2020 but it will hurt us this election.
R. Daneel Olivaw
(12,606 posts)instead of the republican lite that the DNC appears to act more like...
Perhaps it will wake people up to third way manipulation of the Democratic party.
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)Yes, Berniecrats should take full advantage of the law regarding PACs in the meantime.