Bernie Sanders’ Staffers Want To Replace Congress By 2018

[CentralCoaster]

Bernie Sanders’ Staffers Want To Replace Congress By 2018



A group of ex-staffers and volunteers from the Bernie Sanders campaign are looking past the 2016 presidential election and towards the 2018 midterms, aiming to replace the United States Congress with a brand new one – or as close to that as they can get – made up of political newbies and outsiders unbeholden to the donor-class.

Last Monday, these Sanders supporters formed a new Political Action Committee called Brand New Congress, and they’ve already raised nearly $35,000 in donations from around 8,000 pledged members. Around 300 have signed up to work for the campaign.

The group has a three-year plan: Throughout 2016 they will continue recruiting organizers and selecting a set of more than 400 candidates — from across the political spectrum, apparently — who conform to the Sanders brand of political integrity, and by January 2017 they’ll begin a hard push to the midterm elections in November 2018.

Although electing an entirely new Congress seems like a stretch, the massive mobilization we’ve seen of previously disenganged primary voters in 2016 makes just about anything seem feasible, at least on paper.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/bernie-sanderss-staffers-want-to-replace-congress-by-2018-2/

[COLGATE4]

1. Yeah, except for the whole gerrymandering thing.

[HereSince1628]

13. Gerrymandering is a problem. Even so,

the goal is to create a Congress that has many fewer representatives that prefer to serve the donor class rather than the people who elect them. That transformation isn't likely to be achieved in a single election and will require replacing both republicans and some democrats because both parties have incumbent representatives that prefer to serve the policy interests of large corporate donors. Obviously the challenges to those seats need to be targeted and Sanders style democrats will mostly become candidates mostly through primary challenges. That's bound to make the folks who prefer the party to prioritize incumbents (DNC, DCCC) and incumbents irritated. So, I don't expect the ugliness to end with the convention. Power cedes little willingly.

Within the gerrymandered districting there are republican seats that are more vulnerable. The 30ish most vulnerable seats tend to be outside of urban and suburban areas, actually in districts that include counties where discontent with status quo elected government is strong and in which Sanders' message has performed best.

[COLGATE4]

16. I'm afraid that this is an exercise in wishful thinking. Not only, as you correctly

point out this is "unlikely to be achieved in a single election". I believe it is unlikely to be achieved over a span of several elections. You place way too much faith in the attention span of the general electorate. House members retain their House seats precisely by serving the interests of the people that sent them to congress. You or I may not agree with what those interests are, but there's a reason the House holds elections every two years. In two years' time the voters' interest will be about the latest shiny object and Bernie will be cranking out amendments in the Senate.

[HereSince1628]

17. Of course working for change requires being hopeful which is technically

a form of wishful thinking. I don't think there is a way around that. But it shouldn't be suggested to be merely fantastical. Sanders has well over 40% support which is turned on to reform and transformation of Congress.

I can't speak with much knowledge to districts outside of WI. But WI is actually a good place for the Sanders movement to work. The 7th District is particularly of interest. It's populated by the discontented, both in the republican party and the democratic party. So it's ready for a candidate for change. The district was for a long time democratic and it's northwestern reaches include a strong presence of pro-labor democrats and also has a history of socialist leanings.

The 3rd District encompasses the southwestern part of the state and Wisconsin's Mississippi counties. The sw part of the state is well populated with dems and that seat is held by a Third-Way dem. The SW part of the state has a long history of anti-corporate activity and farming communities strongly supported the Grange. IMO Rep Kind doesn't do a great job of representing that interest and he's the sort of Dem who could be challenged by someone less corporate and more progressive.

Russ Feingold looks comfortably strong to win back the senate seat he lost in the midterm 2010.

I don't think it's any easy thing to do reform, nor to wrestle established candidates out of their seats. But I think it can be done here. WI strongly supports Sanders ideas, and it's likely that there are sympathetic supporters outside the districts I mentioned that would contribute resources to help change the WI Congressional delegation in a progressive direction.

[COLGATE4]

18. Let's hope it happens in those Districts.

[Fresh_Start]

2. should do wonders for Bernie's dream about flipping superdelegates

between threatening superdelegates
insulting superdelegates
and now planning on primarying superdelegates...
lots of luck on getting the nomination.

I also read that they had natural allies in the tea party...
I'll let you think about that for a bit.

But I agree that they are both uncompromising...and watching them bump heads will be fun.

[merrily]

3. Robert Browning

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?

Andrea del Sarto, line 98.

[sueh]

4. Good to see Sanders people looking ahead to 2018 mid-term elections...now.

[LisaM]

5. This is exactly what the Tea Party did

I am all for paying more attention to the mid-terms but knocking the whole Congress out is an insane idea. There are plenty of good people in Congress who are working hard. We are going tp thriw all that out the window?

[CentralCoaster]

6. "Brand New" does not mean replace every member.

If you go to the full article you'll read:

Brand New Congress doesn’t necessarily seem to want to swap out everyone on Capitol Hill — just those they deem part of the “do nothing” problem that has pushed so many voters to the fringes of their respective parties.

"Brand New" means changing out enough of the dead wood and bringing in some new members to create a body with new vision and energy.

[Hydra]

7. "Plenty of good people"?

There are a few, and they are welcome to stay...but they are a minority of a minority. The only shame is that the Senate is on a 6 year cycle- only 1/3 of them can go at a time.

[cui bono]

11. The Tea Party was getting in batshit crazy people who know nothing.

Bernie Democrats are smart and progressive. We should be so lucky to have all our elected Dem congress consist of them. The people could rest assured they would be being represented properly and not being sold out to the highest/most influential bidder.

.

[Matariki]

8. I am down with this

and will donate my time and money to that end.

[mikehiggins]

9. Years ago, when I was active in United We Stand, I had a meeting with my

local Congresspersons chief-of-staff. It was at a very nice Italian restaurant on Northern Blvd in Queens and we had a frank and candid discussion. It soon became obvious, over a delicious veal parmigan and pasta dinner, that all the Congressman was interested in was whether we (the neo-Perotistas) intended to primary him.

That is what scares the hell out of members of Congress, no matter how gerrymandered their precincts or how thoroughly suppressed the voters are. Brand New Congress, to be successful, has to start out with the premise that they will mount primaries at all levels, no matter how effort intensive and costly.

Knocking a couple of Congressmen and/or Senators out of their seats would have an amazing effect on those who stay in office.

The only thing to worry about after that is having systems in place to prevent "pros" from taking over the movement, which is pretty much what happened to the Perotistas.

There is no job as good as a seat in Congress. Threaten that and people will listen.

[Betty Karlson]

10. Sounds great to me.

[pat_k]

12. brandnewcongress.org

America needs an honest, accountable Congress to enact Bernie's program. But trying to win each Congressional seat one-by-one is impossible. So let's run one campaign to replace Congress all at once (except those already on board) that whips up the same enthusiasm, volunteerism and money as Bernie's presidential campaign.

Glad they include that little "except those already on board."

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

14. K&R

[NurseJackie]

15. That's not how it works. That's not how ANY of this works! :-P