Bernie Sanders takes Wisconsin!
This makes seven wins out of the last eight contests and reinforces the populist message and its resonance with Americans across the country. The delegate count, 1279 for Hillary Clinton against Bernie Sanders' 1027 makes the race appear to be a dead heat. I've spoken with numerous young voters, but Bernie supporters are particularly excited, enthusiastic, and motivated by the prospect of real populism and the focus of morality and social justice in politics again as a front running concern of a candidate with a proven record of consistency in his approach and priorities.
But there's a problem.
Bernie Sanders supporters are falling in love with the moment more than the message.
Bolstered by the fatigue with political complexity and manipulation by corporation and dark money, Bernie voters are doing what has sabotaged American voters again and again throughout our history. They are loading all their hopes and fears and dreams and frustrations on a single moment approaching in the fall and piling the responsibility of changing a century old political engine onto a single man's shoulders and turning that man's movement into a single position of power.
American politics is like old faithful, the geyser. Pressure and heat, movement and conflict all happen deep below the ground of our awareness of years at a time. Decisions are made, positions we don't even know the names for are voted on, those positions do research, vet candidates, and prepare data for what gives the party it's best chance based on what they know.
Then like clockwork, it all explodes into a nomination process and election that catches our attention.
And it's here that things go wrong.
Motivated supporters of change get fired up because that explosion draws their attention to the things they knew were wrong and broken and want fixed. They get excited over the deadline and the opportunity to make a difference. But if the explosion doesn't grant them exactly what they wanted, their enthusiasm immediately turns into frustration, anger, rage, sadness and indifference. They retreat to their lives and let the rumbling genesis of their problems continue under the surface without the slightest engagement until the next rumbles of an imminent election.
In 2008, we saw this play out in vivid color.
Obama won the presidential election and you could see a kind of joy and enthusiasm among Democrats and progressives like nothing I'd seen in my lifetime up until that point. Hope & Change was the message, and we believed it wholeheartedly, ready to take on the mantle of a new politic that would leave the shady deals and power brokering half measures in the past.
And then Obama had to actually go to Washington and work with the forces present there. Obama inherited a staggering mess; an economic meltdown of epic proportions. Though he got involved right away and took measures to stem the tide and slow the flat spin we were in, he proved what shouldn't have required proof:
Obama was not the messiah.
After two years, Obama had not completely returned the worst economic recession our country had known since the depression to a Clinton-era boom and reformed politics to a transparent and smoothly operating altruistic system working exclusively for the benefit of the average American.
Everyone completely surprised by this failure please raise your hand, then grow up.
You would think this outcome was predictable and obvious. In fact, Obama explicitly said that the road was going to be long and hard. But Democratic voters had fallen in love with a moment. In emotional calculation, they had paid for a product and after two years felt as if they had been betrayed despite the gravity and depth of the task presented.
The consequence was 2010.
Democrats, suffering from post Obamatory depression from not getting what they wanted immediately and nearly instantly decided not to show up on a census year mid-term election during the rise of a new, vitriolic, and ideologically violent kind of conservative. Like a red tide, the tea party swept over state governments and congress, scaring the hell out of establishment Republicans and horrifying progressive leaders. Powerful and constructive politicians supported by both sides were replaced by unthinking and ignorant ideologues who made the destruction of Obama's presidency and the shut-down of government in any way their only goals. The engine of our political machine, while not the smoothest running device, was replaced with a block of cement.
Worse yet, the census year allowed these new extremists to re-draw district lines and consolidate a power base around the new twisted conservative insanity that prevented any kind of more moderate blacklash from dislodging them from either party without extreme measures.
The weight of this failure and the subsequent anemic functionality of our political system can be, in large part, laid at the feet of Democrats who were so in love with the IDEA of Obama that they refused to participate in REALITY of him when the fantasy sprint had to become the practical marathon.
Progressive values suffered deeply because of the failure of Democrats to consolidate their gains in 2008.
And in 2016, here we are again.
Once again we have a man who inspires us with a vision of what our government and our country could be. We have someone talking about exactly the kinds of things progressives have been begging for over the years ever since Ronald Reagan started marching everyone - Republicans and Democrats - away from populism into the indistinct half-capitalism globally invested oligarchy that our nation has become.
But once again, we hear Bernie supporters vesting themselves not in the message or the movement, but in the man and the moment.
If Bernie doesn't win, I'm not voting. Or god forbid, I'm voting for Trump.
If Bernie doesn't win, he should run as an independent.
If Bernie doesn't win...
BERNIE SANDERS HAS ALREADY WON
The question is what are you going to DO with it?
Bernie said from the outset that the campaign wasn't about him, it as about the issues and the ideas behind American populism being destroyed by the Republicans and abandoned by the Democrats. While his goal was certainly to win the nomination, it was first and foremost to bring these issues back into the dialogue and make engaging them something candidates for the Democratic party could no longer avoid.
He's accomplished that.
Whether it's Hillary Clinton or any candidate in the next few cycles, the issues raised and turned into a competitive juggernaut by Bernie Sanders will echo into future. But like any echo, if it's not repeated, it will fade.
Being a true supporter of Bernie Sanders means understanding that his campaign is not a moment, it is a movement. Movements take time and require members to have the resilience to see past setbacks and defeats at times to ensure that in the long run, the goals of the movement are realized.
The bottom line out there is that Bernie Sanders is unlikely to take the Democratic nomination. He has recently come off the strongest territory he would enter in the primary process and the states he goes into next have a great many delegates and not a lot of sympathy for his ideological focus. While he could certainly pull it off, the numbers and practical math suggest that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee.
The worst tragedy that could befall Bernie Sanders is not that he loses the nomination.
The worst tragedy that could befall Bernie Sanders is that his followers betray him by making this about the man and the moment instead of the message and the movement - that they squander this opportunity and don't carry his achievement forward into the mid-terms in 2018 and the next election in 2020. Bernie Sanders has opened a door and ushered in an amazing opportunity, but it's not locked into this presidential election. There are are local political offices, congressional and senatorial races, judicial spots and state assembly and senate seats - these needs to refer back to and demand accountability to the issues Bernie Sanders has made national. This becomes the job of Bernie supporters if they truly support what he stands for and not just this single moment in time.
We need to learn from 2010 and not repeat that horrible mistake. We need to make Bernie's message a priority not just for this election but for EVERY election going forward. If we do this, Bernie can't really lose. He can only change HOW he wins.
So what's it going to be?
This makes seven wins out of the last eight contests and reinforces the populist message and its resonance with Americans across the country. The delegate count, 1279 for Hillary Clinton against Bernie Sanders' 1027 makes the race appear to be a dead heat. I've spoken with numerous young voters, but Bernie supporters are particularly excited, enthusiastic, and motivated by the prospect of real populism and the focus of morality and social justice in politics again as a front running concern of a candidate with a proven record of consistency in his approach and priorities.
But there's a problem.
Bernie Sanders supporters are falling in love with the moment more than the message.
Bolstered by the fatigue with political complexity and manipulation by corporation and dark money, Bernie voters are doing what has sabotaged American voters again and again throughout our history. They are loading all their hopes and fears and dreams and frustrations on a single moment approaching in the fall and piling the responsibility of changing a century old political engine onto a single man's shoulders and turning that man's movement into a single position of power.
American politics is like old faithful, the geyser. Pressure and heat, movement and conflict all happen deep below the ground of our awareness of years at a time. Decisions are made, positions we don't even know the names for are voted on, those positions do research, vet candidates, and prepare data for what gives the party it's best chance based on what they know.
Then like clockwork, it all explodes into a nomination process and election that catches our attention.
And it's here that things go wrong.
Motivated supporters of change get fired up because that explosion draws their attention to the things they knew were wrong and broken and want fixed. They get excited over the deadline and the opportunity to make a difference. But if the explosion doesn't grant them exactly what they wanted, their enthusiasm immediately turns into frustration, anger, rage, sadness and indifference. They retreat to their lives and let the rumbling genesis of their problems continue under the surface without the slightest engagement until the next rumbles of an imminent election.
In 2008, we saw this play out in vivid color.
Obama won the presidential election and you could see a kind of joy and enthusiasm among Democrats and progressives like nothing I'd seen in my lifetime up until that point. Hope & Change was the message, and we believed it wholeheartedly, ready to take on the mantle of a new politic that would leave the shady deals and power brokering half measures in the past.
And then Obama had to actually go to Washington and work with the forces present there. Obama inherited a staggering mess; an economic meltdown of epic proportions. Though he got involved right away and took measures to stem the tide and slow the flat spin we were in, he proved what shouldn't have required proof:
Obama was not the messiah.
After two years, Obama had not completely returned the worst economic recession our country had known since the depression to a Clinton-era boom and reformed politics to a transparent and smoothly operating altruistic system working exclusively for the benefit of the average American.
Everyone completely surprised by this failure please raise your hand, then grow up.
You would think this outcome was predictable and obvious. In fact, Obama explicitly said that the road was going to be long and hard. But Democratic voters had fallen in love with a moment. In emotional calculation, they had paid for a product and after two years felt as if they had been betrayed despite the gravity and depth of the task presented.
The consequence was 2010.
Democrats, suffering from post Obamatory depression from not getting what they wanted immediately and nearly instantly decided not to show up on a census year mid-term election during the rise of a new, vitriolic, and ideologically violent kind of conservative. Like a red tide, the tea party swept over state governments and congress, scaring the hell out of establishment Republicans and horrifying progressive leaders. Powerful and constructive politicians supported by both sides were replaced by unthinking and ignorant ideologues who made the destruction of Obama's presidency and the shut-down of government in any way their only goals. The engine of our political machine, while not the smoothest running device, was replaced with a block of cement.
Worse yet, the census year allowed these new extremists to re-draw district lines and consolidate a power base around the new twisted conservative insanity that prevented any kind of more moderate blacklash from dislodging them from either party without extreme measures.
The weight of this failure and the subsequent anemic functionality of our political system can be, in large part, laid at the feet of Democrats who were so in love with the IDEA of Obama that they refused to participate in REALITY of him when the fantasy sprint had to become the practical marathon.
Progressive values suffered deeply because of the failure of Democrats to consolidate their gains in 2008.
And in 2016, here we are again.
Once again we have a man who inspires us with a vision of what our government and our country could be. We have someone talking about exactly the kinds of things progressives have been begging for over the years ever since Ronald Reagan started marching everyone - Republicans and Democrats - away from populism into the indistinct half-capitalism globally invested oligarchy that our nation has become.
But once again, we hear Bernie supporters vesting themselves not in the message or the movement, but in the man and the moment.
If Bernie doesn't win, I'm not voting. Or god forbid, I'm voting for Trump.
If Bernie doesn't win, he should run as an independent.
If Bernie doesn't win...
BERNIE SANDERS HAS ALREADY WON
The question is what are you going to DO with it?
Bernie said from the outset that the campaign wasn't about him, it as about the issues and the ideas behind American populism being destroyed by the Republicans and abandoned by the Democrats. While his goal was certainly to win the nomination, it was first and foremost to bring these issues back into the dialogue and make engaging them something candidates for the Democratic party could no longer avoid.
He's accomplished that.
Whether it's Hillary Clinton or any candidate in the next few cycles, the issues raised and turned into a competitive juggernaut by Bernie Sanders will echo into future. But like any echo, if it's not repeated, it will fade.
Being a true supporter of Bernie Sanders means understanding that his campaign is not a moment, it is a movement. Movements take time and require members to have the resilience to see past setbacks and defeats at times to ensure that in the long run, the goals of the movement are realized.
The bottom line out there is that Bernie Sanders is unlikely to take the Democratic nomination. He has recently come off the strongest territory he would enter in the primary process and the states he goes into next have a great many delegates and not a lot of sympathy for his ideological focus. While he could certainly pull it off, the numbers and practical math suggest that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee.
The worst tragedy that could befall Bernie Sanders is not that he loses the nomination.
The worst tragedy that could befall Bernie Sanders is that his followers betray him by making this about the man and the moment instead of the message and the movement - that they squander this opportunity and don't carry his achievement forward into the mid-terms in 2018 and the next election in 2020. Bernie Sanders has opened a door and ushered in an amazing opportunity, but it's not locked into this presidential election. There are are local political offices, congressional and senatorial races, judicial spots and state assembly and senate seats - these needs to refer back to and demand accountability to the issues Bernie Sanders has made national. This becomes the job of Bernie supporters if they truly support what he stands for and not just this single moment in time.
We need to learn from 2010 and not repeat that horrible mistake. We need to make Bernie's message a priority not just for this election but for EVERY election going forward. If we do this, Bernie can't really lose. He can only change HOW he wins.
So what's it going to be?
Terrific piece, as usual. I would only qualify what you say re 2008. "Hope and Change" wasn't so much about what we now see as a revolution in politics, but mostly about a black man finally becoming president. We had the illusion that race was behind us. Wow, were we wrong there. Then came the Great Recession and the Occupy Movement. Occupy receded due to it not having a face. It now has a face: Bernie Sanders, but also Elizabeth Warren, and several other progressives. This movement is different, I think (I hope). Will the youngsters opt out of party politics? Will they attempt to change it from within? Will they see the Green Party as a viable solution? Well, we shall see.
ReplyDeleteWisconsin voters appear to have made it all about the man, and not given a shit about the message:
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/HalpernAlex/status/717743018627870723
"The left lost a Supreme Court race in Wisconsin last night because 15% of Bernie supporters didn't vote down ticket."