What’s next for Bernie?
Bernie Sanders’ activists all over the country held watch parties in 2,600 homes Wednesday night for the launch of Our Revolution.
I hosted one such meeting at my house. 14 people showed up at 5:30 with potluck dishes.
This is what a new political revolution should look like. People sharing stories, showing interest in our government like their lives depend upon it. Finally, we have a leader who captures the zeitgeist of our time who is willing to start the process of organizing us.
“Our campaign took on the entire Democratic establishment,” said Sanders in his live address. “And I mean the entire Democratic establishment.” He explained, “We went into states where the senators were opposed to us, governor was opposed to us, virtually everybody in the legislature was opposed to us, and in some states we won in landslide victories.”
Of his impact on the Democratic platform, Sanders said, “While we did not get everything we wanted, it is fair to say that document is an extremely progressive document.” But he isn’t expecting Democrats to implement it without pressure. “If anybody thinks that document and what is in that platform is simply going to be resting on a shelf somewhere accumulating dust, they are very mistaken. We are going to bring that platform alive and make it the blueprint for moving the Democrats forward in Congress and all across this country.”
“Our Revolution is the official successor organization inspired by the Bernie 2016 campaign,” said Shannon Jackson, Executive Director. “We brought people from all walks of life to get involved in politics, to stand up for the issues that really matter like climate change, getting money out of politics, anti-Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), whatever it was, people came out and were interested.”
The Bernie campaign raised 225.6 million through May 2016, but disappointment with the DNC Convention and Sanders’ endorsement of Hillary may have left his followers less willing to part with their money. When asked if Our Revolution will suffer from the loss of momentum, Jackson said, “We’ve never raised money outside of the campaign, so we didn’t know what we’d be able to do.”
But when Our Revolution sent out their first email, not even asking for money, they received more than a hundred thousand dollars. When they specifically asked for donations to support Zephyr Teachout (NY 19), Rick Nolan (MN 8), and Pramila Jayapal (WA 7), they raised more than $225,000 in just a few hours.
Our Revolution will be supporting more than 100 candidates for school boards, city councils, state, and federal offices who are willing to lead a new wave of politics bubbling up from the needs of the vanishing middle class. In addition, they will be involved in promoting major ballot initiatives related to “campaign finance issues, environmental issues, healthcare issues, labor issues, gender related issues,” said Sanders, “to create an America based on the principles of economic, social, racial, and environmental justice.”
Sanders has tasked Larry Cohen, former president of the Communications Workers of America and Jeff Weaver, Bernie 2016’s campaign manager, to head up Our Revolution, along with Jackson as Executive Director.
“We’re running against the Trans Pacific Partnership, we’re running against climate naysayers, against big Pharma, against fracking, people that prefer to look at the world with money signs in their eyes rather than seeing a bright future that can help everybody,” Jackson said.
“We changed the conversation regarding the possibilities of our country,” said Sanders. “We redefined what the vision and the future of our country should be. And that is no small thing. What our campaign showed, making the establishment very, very unhappy, is that the American people are prepared to stand up to a corrupt campaign finance system, a rigged economy, a broken criminal justice system, and the global threat posed by the fossil fuel industry that is destroying our planet through their fossil fuel emissions.”
Our political revolution isn’t about a “savior” President of the United States. As Bernie has repeated, each of us has to get involved in politics. We must save our home or we will die trying.