The grassroots is taking
charge of Sanders’ campaign—and they’re not waiting around for the
establishment.
http://inthesetimes.com/article/18789/something-is-happening
When I crossed paths with a
Democratic Party campaign consultant in Austin last March, I suggested he come
out to the local International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers hall to hear
Bernie Sanders, adding that the Vermont senator was pondering a run for the
presidency.
“You gotta be kiddin' me,” the
political pro snorted. “Bernie Sanders? Let me tell ya, his chances are slim
and none, and Slim don't live in Bernie's precinct. First of all, no one south
of Greenwich Village ever heard of him. Second, who's gonna vote for some old
senator from a tiny state of Birkenstock-wearers damn near in Canada?”
So that scoffer was a no-show,
but we really didn't have room for him anyway. We had expected about 200
people—the capacity of the hall—but nearly 500 Texans showed up that night to
hear the undiluted populist message of this senator “no one ever heard of.”
Austin was one of the first
stops on a cross-country trip that Sanders was taking to assess whether an
unabashedly progressive, movement-building presidential campaign could rally
any substantial support. If he ran, he intended to go right at the moneyed
elites who've thoroughly corrupted our politics and rigged our economy to
squeeze the life out of the middle class. But, would anyone follow? Were people
really ready to do this, and could a 74-year-old, notoriously brusque Vermonter
with a conspicuous Brooklyn accent be the one to spark such a modern-day
American revolt? He wasn't sure, and even if it might work, he assumed it would
be a slow build.
I was to introduce him at the
Austin event, and as we worked our way from the parking lot, waving to an
ebullient overflow group gathered outside the union building, shaking hands
with people standing all along the hallway and up the stairwell, then squeezing
through the jam-packed crowd in the auditorium—I said to him: “Something is
happening here.” He nodded and said in an astonished whisper, “Something is
happening.”
That was a precursor to what
would soon become the “Sanders Sensation,” a spontaneous, unusually vibrant
grassroots uprising that has already shattered the Democratic Establishment's
holy myth that corporate centrism and super PAC money are the only means to
victory. Stupendous crowds are streaming into arenas all around the country to
hear Sanders' fact-studded speeches (which are more like ardent tutorials on
democracy than rah-rah stump speeches). Not only are people signing up for his
populist call to action, but hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts are also
pitching in small donations (averaging under $30 each) to self-finance a
viable, multimillion-dollar campaign that can go the distance.
For me though, the great
difference in this effort is that grassroots people themselves are taking
charge—not leaving it to establishment office holders and party operatives to
do the same old thing, From rallies of 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 people (as Donald
Trump would say, these events are truly “Huuuuge!”) to the local campaign
committees that have sprung up across the country like hardy spring
wildflowers, most of the faces are new, fresh, and excited.
Sure, many progressive
old-timers are drawn to his maverick run, as are a cadre of experienced
organizers, but the driving force of “Bernie for President” is coming from two
encouraging sources: (1) An emerging rainbow of young people dismayed and
disgusted by the greed and pettiness of today's “leaders” who are restructuring
America into a plutocracy that callously sweeps the crying needs of the
declining middle class, the poor, the planet, and the common good under the rug
of laissez-faire Kochism; and (2) a potentially game-changing group of working
class mad-as-hellers who had disengaged from a governing system that has
deliberately ignored working stiffs or, worse, cynically used them as political
pawns to be demonized and disempowered.
Sanders' populist surge
naturally intrigues a wide range of free-thinking, truth-seeking voters, but we
are being warned by the Democratic hierarchy that the only way to ward off the
Halloween horror of a Donald Trump-Ted Cruz presidency is to set aside our
populist idealism this year and stick with Barack Obama-style,
don't-rock-the-corporate-boat liberalism offering small-step reforms. That's
not exactly a turn-on for the majority of people fed up with business-as-usual
politics—which is why so many Americans are hitching their populist hopes to
Sanders' people-powered movement.
Jim Hightower is the author of
six books, including Thieves in High Places (Viking 2003). A well-known
populist and former Texas Commissioner of Agriculture, he currently writes a
nationally-syndicated column carried by 75 publications. He also writes a
monthly newsletter titled The Hightower Lowdown, and contributes to the Progressive
Populist.
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