I've posted about it myself a few times. It's not about Bernie at all, much as I love Bernie, it's about reclaiming our country from the large corporate interests. The large corporations can serve the public interest, or at least not subvert it, if we can get control back, reregulate them, and revoke their charters if they won't work to benefit the greater good.
I don't see it happening in 2016, I just don't think we'll have other candidates in position to run on a Bernie-like platform. If he can win election, or even just the nomination, he can prove the viability of throwing off the corporate shackles, and that the people will get behind those who do. Ideally his coattails would drag a lot of like-minded candidates to office, but the party is too entrenched at this time, there isn't a candidate pool ready to jump in that breaks away so cleanly from our recent history.
So for the first two years, he'll need to do what he can, put the right policy positions out there, get a few choice pieces enacted when possible, and fight like hell to make sure the public knows who is blocking the rest of them and why. I have complete confidence that Bernie is the right man for that, he's been doing it his whole career.
When the policy direction is well established in the public consciousness, momentum will shift, he'll have a lot of support from the people and a lot of anger will be directed at obstructive incumbents. That will enable the wave to start. My hope is we'd get it going for the 2018 midterms. We'll need new candidates (or genuinely reformed old ones) who don't accept the constant dialing-for-dollars and corporate lobbyist model of governing.
It's a heavy lift for sure, but it's what needs to happen. Defeating big money is the key, and our only weapon against that is massive citizen participation, which we're seeing already with Bernie's large activist base.
The people of this country, many of them anyway, DO care, they just lack non-cynical leadership to mobilize their participation. I have no idea if we can pull this off, probably not, I have seen too many good things die because they weren't what the monied interests wanted, but it's really our best and only chance, and if enough of us get on board it can actually happen.
I know that makes me a naive fool in the eyes of many, but sometimes though the truth really is simple and all it takes is enough people to let go of their cynicism and lend a hand. Climate change is the radicalizing catalyst, change HAS to happen, major change, and we won't get there by electing corporate-backed lessor of two evil third way types. I think it's bigger than the Democratic Party, the coming collapse is motivating people to get it right before it's too late.
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