Let's get real, Bernie fans: It isn't "giving up" to admit a revolution isn't coming

[riversedge]

Thursday, Jan 21, 2016 06:57 AM CST

Let’s get real, Bernie fans: It isn’t “giving up” to admit a revolution isn’t coming
Sanders supporters have embraced the candidate's calls for a revolution. But structural barriers are real

Let’s get real, Bernie fans: It isn’t “giving up” to admit a revolution isn’t coming http://www.salon.com/2016/01/21/lets_get_real_bernie_fans_it_isnt_giving_up_to_admit_a_revolution_isnt_coming/ via @Salon


Gary Legum


This past week has brought the shape of the Democratic primary into sharper focus. As we head into the start of voting, anyone paying attention to the arguments being made among voters, political professionals and opinion columnists should be able to recognize that the nomination fight is a battle between Hillary Clinton’s continuation of the pragmatic and incremental leftward policy push begun by Barack Obama, and the whole-loaf, smash-the-system revolution promised by Bernie Sanders.


One argument that pundits such as Jonathan Chait and Paul Krugman have made, and which I think is being yadda-yadda’d a little too much by Sanders’s supporters, is the observation that any Democratic president will be hamstrung by what will almost assuredly be a Republican-controlled Congress. Thanks to gerrymandering and demographic sorting (the habit of liberals to live in clusters in major cities while conservative voters are more evenly spread out through the country), the House of Representatives has little chance of seeing a Democratic majority either this year or in 2018.

Democrats have a better chance of retaking the Senate, but even there they will not have anything close to a 60-vote supermajority that can stop Republican obstructionism. Furthermore, there will still be enough moderate and conservative Democrats in the chamber to water down any liberal legislation. Add in that the Democratic caucus will likely be led by Chuck Schumer, who is not exactly Elizabeth Warren, and it is very likely that the Senate will be the same chokepoint it has been for most of our history. (And for which our sainted Founding Fathers designed it to be.)....................

This is something I think gets overlooked in all the talk about Sanders’s revolution. For evidence, one only need look back at the early years of the Obama administration.
...............................................



This is not to argue that everyone should forget Sanders and go vote for Hillary Clinton, though obviously I fall into the incrementalism, get-what-you-can-within-the-system’s-constraints camp. But the constraints are there, they can’t be wished away, and they make rapid change nearly impossible in our polarized times. So I think it’s important for supporters of liberalism to remember them and to decide, no matter who is the nominee, the practical goals they will need to achieve to overcome them.....................

[pangaia]

1. OH blah, blah blah !!!

[NorthCarolina]

5. What? Are you implying that these propaganda attempts to dampen your enthusiasm

aren't working? You must be made of cold hard steel.

[CoffeeCat]

16. It's working on me!

Help me! I'm folding like a cheap tent!

Ten minutes ago, I was writing a beautiful poem about Bernie and arranging the candles on my Bernie shrine. But after reading this amazing essay (thank the LORD it was posted!!), I am finding myself lost.

So disillusioned.

I'm heading toward the bright white Hillary light! It's pulling me in!

[elias49]

22. Don't do it!

[CoffeeCat]

29. Help me! I don't want to end up in the TV! (nt)

[NorthCarolina]

23. Oh noes

DON'T GO INTO THE LIGHT!!

[ejbr]

27. I SWEAR

on all things good and sacred that this was my first reaction too!

[merrily]

35. But Legums are so nutritious!

Oh wait, that's legumes.

[azmom]

2. Let's not.

[Skwmom]

3. It's not just corporate Republicans that are the problem. It's the corporate Democrats and the sell

out Democrats who put their own power and position ahead of doing what is right for the American Public.

[draa]

9. Damn right.

It's crap like this OP. This doesn't tell us anything. Just more "You Suck and you'll never win" defeatism from our own party. Man this shit gets old.

On the plus side, the "establishment Democrats" will probably find their going much more difficult should they succeed. People are finally waking up to just how corrupt the party has become.

[hobbit709]

4. Beats the hell out of giving up before you even try.

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
Robert Kennedy

I always say, dare to struggle, dare to grin.
Wavy Grav

[Krytan11c]

6. AARGGHHH!!!!!

Don't you simpletons know you can't win!!1!!eleven
How dare you even try. It's embarrassing to watch.
Get over yourselves and fall in line!!


And people wonder why we are sick of the status quo. The status quo does nothing but insult us at every turn. Denigrate us for even trying. Fuck that shit. Bernie is our guy and if we go down at least you and the establishment will know you had a fight.

[ejbr]

28. +10000 n/t

[Iggy Knorr]

7. scared rich people

say the darnedest things!

[Lawud]

19. It's so painfully obvious

[CoffeeCat]

8. OH the pain!! Oh the agony!! I feel so demoralized!!

I was in the tank for Bernie before I read this post. I was so looking forward to canvassing for him today in my Iowa neighborhood.

When I emerge from my fetal position, I will be calling the Hillary campaign and ordering her yard signs, coffee mugs and maybe even the pillow shams.

Seriously? You're on a website that is 80 percent Sanders supporters. Is this supposed to change hearts and minds?

I don't even read this malarkey.

...but it is fun to reply to it.

[Art_from_Ark]

24. Don't forget the champagne flutes!

(Champagne not included)

?w=670&fit=max&auto=format&q=70

[snoringvoter]

10. The desperation is definitely reeking out openly and pouring by the bucketfuls.

My vote, my choice. It is not owned by anyone else.

[cali]

11. Lol. What a steaming pile of oozing poo.

[daleanime]

12. Then what are you worried about?

[merrily]

33. !!!

[pinebox]

13. It's already here

Have you seen all the people running on the local and federal level for seats who are "Bernie Dems"? Yup, it's happening. Yup, people are fed up. Yup, the establishment is hurting. Yup, people are leaving the Democratic party. Look at the backlash the DNC has faced and how DWS has a challenger for her seat who's a "Bernie Dem".

[kenfrequed]

14. Wow....best idea Evah!

So... rather then begging us to continue the revolution even if our candidate doesn't get the nod you think the best idea is just to basically try to extinguish the fire.

Yeah, dampening enthusiasm is exactly how you take back congress.

[Lawud]

15. All these hit pieces on Bernie by these writters and Hillary supporters show desperation

You guys didn't expect this

Now you are starting to realize the majority of Democrats and independents do not want to see
Hillary in the Whitehouse .

Sure the large corporations and the 1% do but guess what Hillary supporters ...


It ain't happening this time

We are going to get a President for the people

Deal with it..

[CoffeeCat]

20. but...but...She had all of the endorsements!

How can this be? How can Bernie be winning when Hillary had piles and piles of endorsements?

She had the media!

And Barack Obama's lists from his Iowa ground game!

And the Scooby van!

And the pantsuits!

How can this be?

What is happening???

[Lawud]

34. Can't attack the man on his record or his integrity

Strategy by the Clinton campaign ..

Attack his ideas of a better America for the people.


This is so so going to back fire on the Clinton campaign and by her supporters it's making me giddy

[coyote]

55. Hmmmm...

https://m.

[Still In Wisconsin]

17. So in other words: shut up, stupid liberals, the times have passed you by.

I get it. My candidate is shit and once the Hil Machine has finished destroying him, this silly little dream is over.

[TM99]

18. Some nobody blogger in LA

who gets paid to write online content.

I wonder which campaign or surrogate paid for this bullshit! Let me guess!

[CoffeeCat]

21. Did anyone really read it though? Seriously. (nt)

[Art_from_Ark]

26. I read the first few sentences

and thought, "What a festering heap of elephant dung!"

[CoffeeCat]

36. This post is the equivalent of walking into a room with 80 percent vegetarians

and screaming, "Look at me! I'm eating steak! Just look at you morons with your arugula and your tofu!"

Mocking, insulting and trying so hard to make Sanders supporters feel like shit. It just warms the heart.

80 percent of DUers are Sanders supporters.

I have never understood what the point of stuff like this is.

But we're winning now, so who cares. Let them eat steak.

[phleshdef]

25. Very few people supporting Sanders are going to even read that horseshit

the author should rethink his life because he just wasted a lot of writing that nonsense

[merrily]

30. LOL! It's already started.

Shhh.

Oops. I mean, you're right. Ain't never going to happen.

[Jarqui]

31. Let's get him elected and then we can worry about the revolution

[riversedge]

48. Bernie says he will get elected without the establishment. good luck with that sillyness.

[Jarqui]

50. He's doing pretty well so far.

If he wins the primary, the Clintons gravy train will be over in Washington. There will be no end to the line forming in front of Bernie with their political hands out wanting to hop on board.

[stonecutter357]

32. K&R!

[lunamagica]

37. K&R.

[CoffeeCat]

40. I'm kicking and recommending just so the mocking and assault on Sanders supporters

is visible for all to see.

I also think our hilarious responses (and the obvious reality that this shit does not work) is worth spotlighting.

Big K&R!

[lunamagica]

43. Yawn..

[boobooday]

38. So patronizing

Extremely tone-deaf.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

39. How about some creeping incremental change to the left.

Instead of "grand bargains" and raised retirement ages and tax cuts for the wealthy and bank deregulation.

All I'm asking is we start negotiations on the left and maybe meet in the middle - or even maybe a little on the left for a change. Instead of starting in the middle and settling on the right.

[Orsino]

41. "Give up," whispers Salon. n/t

[restorefreedom]

42. salon has been downhill since they started presenting joan walsh as impartial.

but back to the op,

cake, anyone?

[stage left]

44. What ops like this

always make me think of.

[Avalux]

45. Constraints are meant to be broken, and that's exactly what we're going to do. n/t

[Bluenorthwest]

46. The 'Let's Get Real' message of 2008 was 'Let's get real, marriage equality is impossible and only

civil unions are realistic. You people let the perfect be the enemy of half of loaf! Be pragmatic and admit this will take generations! Let's get real and compromise'.

Nothing is less attractive to me than people claiming their opinion is definitive wisdom and the one true real way of thinking. This is because those folks are always wrong, it's an endless losing streak for them.

[Alfresco]

47. Bernie's revolution is nothing but a slogan.

[Romulox]

49. Must...maintain...Status Quo...at all costs! nt

[BigBearJohn]

51. Those that say it can’t be done should get out of the way of those doing it” GO BERNIE!!

[guillaumeb]

52. I thought at first that this was fom The Onion!!! But it is meant as serious analysis?

When the author wrote:

the pragmatic and incremental leftward policy push begun by Barack Obama, and the whole-loaf, smash-the-system revolution promised by Bernie Sanders.

What leftward policy push?

The push for a TPP that will reward the rich at the expense of the workers?

The ignoring of workers for 7 years?

The massive subsidy to the insurance companies that is the ACA?

The refusal to prosecute the war criminals who lied the country into 2 wars?

The refusal to prosecute the banker thieves who nearly ruined the economy?

The key word here is incremental, but incremental implies progress.

Under the philosophy of cautious incrementalism, women and blacks would still be unable to vote, workers would be unable to form unions, there would be no marriage equality, and Americans would be ruled by Queen Elizabeth II.

[Gothmog]

53. Great article

There has been no polling showing this revolution

[Romulox]

54. Republican gridlock is only an argument in favor of Clinton if you accept that her goals

are more palatable to the Right.

[Empowerer]

56. Thanks for your well-reasoned, thoughtful post

Unfortunately, it's receiving the expected response from the "cool" kids in the treehouse with the "We hate Shillereez" sign on the door.

Oh, well ...

[HassleCat]

57. Same constraints for both

No Democratic president will get anything through Congress. It's executive orders, court battles, and that's it.

[plus5mace]

58. The idea that the US political landscape is unchangable is a political depression.

When I watch All in the Family and see how little has changed (for the better) in American discourse over 40 years, I have to wonder why I should care anymore. If we can't beat the reactionary right, if the best we can do is lose slowly, I can think of more fun things to do as the world ends.