Why the Sanders movement is just about dead

[riversedge]

It is truly on life support at this moment.

The author does offer some good advice.



Why the Sanders movement is just about dead


https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/05/18/why-the-sanders-movement-is-just-about-dead/?tid=pm_opinions_pop_b



By Paul Waldman May 18 at 11:50 AM

(Scott Olson/Getty Images)

This is the moment of truth for Bernie Sanders and his supporters. It’s the moment that determines whether everything they’ve accomplished to this point is translated into real power and real change, or fizzles into nothing, leaving behind only bitterness and resentment. And right now, the latter course is looking much more likely.

What happened in Nevada over the weekend was an expression of some key features of the Sanders campaign, even if it involved only a small number of Sanders supporters taking things to an extreme that most of them would never contemplate. It showed just how hard it’s going to be to convert the campaign into a lasting enterprise that has any influence over American politics. And at the moment, Bernie Sanders himself — the one person with the power to shape where this movement goes from here — hasn’t shown that he understands what’s happening or what he ought to do about it.................



This is the problem with framing your campaign and everything you want to do as a “revolution.” You can’t have a partial revolution; either you overthrow the old order or the old order survives. And Sanders is encouraging his supporters to believe that if there’s anything of the old order left, then all is lost.

But the reality is that if the Sanders campaign is to become the Sanders movement — a force that has lasting impact on the presidency of Hillary Clinton and American politics more generally — it will only happen because he and his supporters manage to exercise influence through that system they despise. When he goes to visit Clinton in the Oval Office and tells her, “We still need a revolution!”, what is she going to say? Okay Bernie, thanks for coming, it was nice to see you.

If he and his people want to actually exercise some influence, they’ll have to start thinking about mundane things like presidential appointments, executive branch regulations, and the details of complex legislation. Victories in those forums will be partial and sporadic. From our vantage point today, is there anything to suggest that’s an enterprise he and his people will be willing to devote their efforts to? What happens if Clinton offers Sanders something — changes to the party’s platform, or input on her nominees? Will his supporters say, “This may not have been all we wanted, but it’s still meaningful”? No, they won’t. They’ll see it as a compromise with the corrupt system they’ve been fighting, a sellout, thirty pieces of silver that Sanders ought to toss back in her face. That’s because Sanders has told them over and over that the system is irredeemable, and nothing short of its complete dismantling is worthwhile.

[MFM008]

1. he is a democrat

in name only.

[floriduck]

2. Well if the WaPo says so, it must be true. Did Jonathon Capehart help draft this?

[riversedge]

11. You will have to ask the author.

[Bill USA]

3. I expect some BS fans to go on shouting baseless attacks on Clinton out of childish vindictiveness

.. But to be fair to true Bernie supporters, many of these voices will be from Repugnants 'for' Bernie, not real Bernie fans.

[dubyadiprecession]

4. Can someone notify his supporters before they waste more of their money...

on a campaign that has no hope.

[Yurovsky]

5. Progressives are on the upward swing, 3rd Way types are endangered...

average age of anyone who tries to endure a Clinton campaign stop is about 4x that of Bernie supporters. So the only thing "just about dead" is the generation of Democratic Party bosses that went GOP Lite, slashed government, assistance, and spent a decade imprisoning millions of falsely-labeled "super Predators" (Clinton-speak for young black males).

The arc of history bends towards justice. The corporate friendly, 1%-enriching policies of the Clintons isn't long for this world. Thankfully.

[hobbit709]

6. If HRC wins "We the People" will become "We the Corporations"

[Gothmog]

7. The Sanders revolution is not happening

Now the small dollar donors are drying up and the Sanders campaign is running out of money. Sanders has no path to the nomination and the sane Sanders followers understand the math

[riversedge]

15. To me, there

is some sadness about that. I think he does have some good ideas but they were too much given the makeup of the Congress. And there was --and is not now any effort by his camp to help down ticket Democrats on the ticket. All Sanders needs to do is look at the WH--trying to do so much --alone! Republicans are not and will not help any Dem. agenda-and certainly not those put forth by Sanders.

[beachbumbob]

8. An angry old socialist who's ego is out of control and can't steer his mob

Followers any more...calling it what it is...

[Jim Lane]

9. Baloney. Would "the details of complex legislation" include the ACA?

Sanders, being a genuine progressive, wanted single-payer health care. So, given that he's a revolution-or-nothing type, who's unwilling to pay any attention to the details of complex legislation, that explains why he voted against a less-than-revolutionary compromise with a corrupt system, namely the ACA.

...except, of course, that he didn't. He knew that the administration needed his vote, so he displayed an ability to "manage to exercise influence through that system" (contrary to this author's fact-free attack). He pushed Obama somewhat to the left by getting eleven billion dollars for community health centers added to the bill.

What he's done now is to push the entire national political discourse somewhat to the left. Millions of people have been told that we can have single payer, that the 1% are fleecing us, that we aren't condemned to pay for endless wars. That shift won't make us Denmark overnight (we should be so lucky), but it will have an effect on all those appointments and regulations and bills that the author is so concerned about.

In fact, I think that was Bernie's real goal, and he's already achieved it. My guess is that he never really thought that a septuagenarian Jewish socialist could beat a candidate who was so heavily favored by the party machinery. Still less did he expect to effect a complete political revolution in one election cycle. Rather, he thought that he could run a campaign based primarily on progressive ideas (rather than on email servers or Clinton Foundation contributions or other such things), that he could reach a lot of people through such a campaign, and that he might even get enough votes to get additional respect for those ideas from the governing class. My guess is that he's already succeeded past his most optimistic projections.

[Betty Karlson]

10. You wish.

Alive - and ever more ready to start kicking.

[John Poet]

12. I know what a real revolution means, and I support that idea.

I've never known it to be accomplished via the ballot box, and it appears that won't happen this time either.

[Armstead]

13. THiS kind of thinking represents exactly WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY!

Let's kill all goals, and let's smash and inslut anyone or anything that doesn't obediently follow the Conventional Wisdom.

Better to just sit down and "SHUT THE FUCK UP" and accept what the "powers that be" want to do to you.

It is why the Democratic Party may be on life support soon.

[auntpurl]

14. I thought this was particularly well said

This is the problem with framing your campaign and everything you want to do as a “revolution.” You can’t have a partial revolution; either you overthrow the old order or the old order survives. And Sanders is encouraging his supporters to believe that if there’s anything of the old order left, then all is lost.

Yes, the only "logical" next step is burn it all down, and most people in this country don't want to be associated with that type of politics.