Bernie Sanders supporters strategizing to build a lasting progressive movement

[applegrove]

Bernie Sanders supporters strategizing to build a lasting progressive movement

by Joseph Tanfani and Evan Halper at the LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-bernie-sanders-movement-20160501-story.html

"SNIP.............


With that history in mind, a campaign behind the Sanders campaign is starting to take shape, with the goal of turning his passionate army into something that doesn't end after he delivers a barn-burning convention speech in Philadelphia — and then gets overshadowed by a general election in which he is unlikely to be on the ballot.

"This is a hard conversation for many of us to have," said an open letter to Sanders written by Bronx teacher and union organizer Erik Forman, and signed by dozens of activists and academics, including Noam Chomsky. "We've been hurt before. ... We want this time to be different. Let's build something real together. Let's make not just a political revolution, but a social and economic revolution by building not just a campaign for president, but a lasting movement."

The letter lays out a plan for building a lasting advocacy organization that would rival the tea party or the National Rifle Assn. by leveraging Sanders' massive donor network and grass-roots organizing operation to win local-level elections and push a progressive agenda. Other Sanders supporters are meeting in Chicago in June to map out a plan for continuing the fight.

The activists face some complicated choices. The first is whether they even want to stay in the Democratic Party, which many Sanders supporters complain is in thrall to wealthy donors and corporate interests and cannot be trusted.




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[msongs]

1. for 73 years he ignored the democratic party and now wants to remake it in his own likeness nt

[WhiteTara]

2. He didn't ignore it, he did a lot of trashing

the party; although he did vote with Democrats on many issues. He seems very conflicted in his beliefs.