This is what democratic grassroots looks like in rural Oregon and it’s the last house down a long gravel road.



We’d stopped by my cousin’s house in town and, after wrangling over GPS coordinates, he simply jumped on his bike and gave us a Harley escort to unravel the narrow roads leading through the verdant rolling hills of east Willamette Valley to our destination.

Being Bernie supporters, it was instant party to the point that the hosts had trouble herding us into our chairs for the presentation. A dozen of us from adjacent small towns, we were evenly split in gender and ranged in age from 60 somethings to 20 somethings. One of our number was a Hilary supporter (If only Bernie were a woman!). The hostess quipped that all the Democrats in the county were likely under their roof tonight.



As we went around the room introducing ourselves, we spoke of what we saw in Bernie that made us pledge our time, energy and fortune on his Quixotic run for the presidency. Over and over again, I heard a similar refrain: Bernie is honest, consistent, passionate, and fearless who really did feel the pain of the once great Middle Class. One Democrat voiced his gratitude that Bernie had chosen to run as a Democrat so he would not act as a "spoiler" to divide the vote. One highly decorated Vietnam vet and lifelong Republican (switching for Obama) said that he saw Bernie as our "last hope to save our democracy".

The hosts had attended two prior meetups in Oregon. Following the organizing dictum (stolen from medical school jargon) of “See one, Do one, Teach one”, they had thrown open their home to complete strangers on the internet based only upon their willingness to organize for Bernie.

Many crystal ball gazers are fond of saying that Bernie has a snowball's chance in a warm place of winning the primary much less the general election because he lacks organization and money. To me, this meetup proved that wrong.

Out of the dozen people there, we were able to field a team organizer, clipboarders, phone bankers, and potential hosts for four more local meetups. On the spot, we were able to donate $400 to the cause.

This was a grassroots meeting under We Want Bernie launched by the 527 PAC Progressive Democrats of America which has been working for over a year to build capacity. At their ten-year reunion, they presented Bernie with a petition of 12,000 signers urging him to run for President. Bernie-wise, he said he would explore the idea. He did due diligence and traveled over ten states to gauge the people's will and decided that yes, this was doable.



Our man Bernie has a plan to restore the Middle Class and return democracy (with a little d) to our nation which has become an Oligarchy. He's never been a man of few words ("I'm not done yet"- index finger in the air) and the pamphlet reflects that by opening accordion-style to reveal his 12 point plan for America.Oregon, like the venue, is at the end of a long gravel road electorally speaking, yet that did not phase us any more than the MSM prognostications of the improbability of success. The hope to elect a president unbeholden to the billionaire class who will work for the people is a long gravel road; however, the destination is worth that long dusty trek.