Galindez writes: "Win or lose, the Sanders campaign has awakened a movement that will live long past July or even November."



Bernie Sanders. (photo: Arun Chaudhary)

It's Not About Bernie, It's About Us

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

t was another good night for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and she has moved closer to the nomination. It is not all over though, and Bernie Sanders will take his campaign to the Democratic National Convention in July. Win or lose, the Sanders campaign has awakened a movement that will live long past July or even November. Bernie did pick up a lot of delegates and strengthened the hand we will have at the convention in July.

I moved to Iowa last February to cover the caucus. I, like many people, loved Bernie but thought that Elizabeth Warren was more electable. I didn’t know if Bernie could overcome the “socialist” label. It only took a three-day swing by Sanders in late February for him to answer my concerns. At the time Bernie was still trying to decide if he would run and if it would be as a Democrat. I asked him what it would take to decide to run.

Bernie saw what he needed to see to run. He saw that the American people were ready to help him launch a serious campaign that would further the causes important to him. It was never about Bernie Sanders - it was always about the progressive cause. Bernie was more concerned about what a candidacy would do to the progressive movement than what it would do for his political career.

There is no question that Bernie’s campaign has furthered the progressive cause. If we stand together and organize we can accomplish great things. Hours before the polls closed in the 5 states contested this week, Bernie sent the following message to his supporters:

“Our path to the nomination was never narrower than the day I announced my candidacy. I will not stop fighting for an America where no one who works 40 hours a week lives in poverty, where health care is a right for all Americans, where kids of all backgrounds can go to college without crushing debt, where there is no bank too big to fail, no banker too powerful to jail, and we’ve reclaimed our democracy from the billionaire class. The political establishment wants us to go away so they can begin their march to the center.”

It is not time for us to go away. It is time for us to march into Philadelphia and beyond and fight for a progressive agenda. This June in Chicago there will be an event called “The People’s Summit” that is being organized by many of the groups that have been supporting Bernie: National Nurses United, Progressive Democrats of America, Latinos for Bernie, People for Bernie, and 350.org to name just a few.

It remains to be seen if this will emerge as an organization that will lead the post-campaign movement, but with those groups on board it will have a role. If you are a Bernie supporter who wants to help shape the political revolution, you should be in Chicago for that summit. Three speakers are already confirmed: Naomi Klein, Dr. Cornel West, and RoseAnn DeMoro, the executive director of National Nurses United.

The organization’s website has the following:

Call for the People’s Summit: Building the Political Revolution At a time of tremendous turmoil and progressive opportunity, we invite you to participate in a historic convening of organizations and individuals committed to social, racial and economic justice. On June 17-19, in Chicago, after the party primary season and before the party conventions, we seek to bring together activists committed to a different kind of agenda: a People’s Agenda that can enhance and expand issue campaigns and hold all elected officials accountable to popular demands for justice, equality and freedom. We envision this Summit as further deepening the relationship between participating organizations rooted in principled anti-corporate politics, development of community leaders, direct action not based on partisan identification, and strategic organizing to build power. The Summit itself will include plenary and workshop sessions devoted to key issues such as the Fight for 15, mass incarceration and criminal justice reform, voting rights and expanding democratic participation, a tax on Wall Street speculation to fund human needs and jobs, climate justice toward a sustainable economy, improved Medicare for All, the fight for free and debt-free higher education, secure retirement through expanding social security, ending HIV/AIDS, achieving Constitutional pay equity for women, and ending deportations and support for DREAMers, among others. We will take action in Chicago against the big money system of politics that expands the power of the wealthy and corporations at the expense of the people. We will also celebrate with music and a “festival of joyous rebellion.” And we will plan how to move our People’s Agenda nationally and locally to help build the broad movement for people and the planet.

I don’t know about you, but I see Bernie’s fingerprints all over this. This is what his campaign is all about, building a political revolution. Here he is, in his own words, just days after he launched his campaign:

The Sanders campaign issued the following statement on Tuesday night:

I congratulate Secretary Clinton on her victories tonight, and I look forward to issue-oriented campaigns in the 14 contests to come. I am proud that we were able to win a resounding victory tonight in Rhode Island, the one state with an open primary where independents had a say in the outcome. Democrats should recognize that the ticket with the best chance of winning this November must attract support from independents as well as Democrats. I am proud of my campaign’s record in that regard. The people in every state in this country should have the right to determine who they want as president and what the agenda of the Democratic Party should be. That’s why we are in this race until the last vote is cast. That is why this campaign is going to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia with as many delegates as possible to fight for a progressive party platform that calls for a $15 an hour minimum wage, an end to our disastrous trade policies, a Medicare-for-all health care system, breaking up Wall Street financial institutions, ending fracking in our country, making public colleges and universities tuition free and passing a carbon tax so we can effectively address the planetary crisis of climate change.

Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott will be spending a year covering the presidential election from Iowa.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.