Mother Jones: What Should Bernie Sanders Do Next?

[Miles Archer]

What Should Bernie Sanders Do Next?
Four leaders from top progressive groups discuss how Sanders could turn a phenomenal campaign into a lasting legacy.

Josh HarkinsonJun. 11, 2016 6:00 AM



http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/what-should-bernie-sanders-do-next

On the eve of the presidential primary in Washington, DC—the final vote of the campaign—Bernie Sanders stood before a massive crowd of placard-waving supporters and reflected on a run that defied all expectations. "What the punditry thought was that this campaign would not go very far," he said. "Well, here we are in mid-June and we are still standing."

Sanders has pledged to take his nomination fight all the way to the floor of the Democratic National Convention, pushing platform and rules changes that would empower progressives. But if he wants to create a lasting legacy in the months and years to come, he must figure out how to parlay the momentum of his campaign into an enduring progressive movement.

Others have tried this before. After winning 11 states in the 1988 Democratic presidential primary, Jesse Jackson channeled his campaign's progressive energy into the Rainbow Push Coalition, an activist group dedicated to racial justice. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean lost an insurgent presidential bid in 2004 but used his formidable email list to create Democracy for America, a group dedicated to electing progressives. But such efforts have fallen far short of political revolution.

So what should Sanders do next? Mother Jones asked four leaders from the country's top progressive political groups: Neil Sroka of Democracy for America, Ben Wikler of MoveOn.org, Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and Dan Cantor of the Working Families Party. Here's how they mapped the road ahead for Sanders:

[PoliticAverse]

1. He should work on writing a really good speech for the convention. n/t

[LWolf]

3. I have doubts

about whether we all agree on what would constitute a "really good speech."

[PoliticAverse]

4. lol. Well no one said it would be easy, which is why he needs to start working on it now. n/t

[LWolf]

5. I doubt he'd give the speech I really want to hear.

I'd love a speech at the Democratic Convention that blasts neo-liberalism into hell, but I don't think he'll give that one, because he'll be expected to say something positive about Clinton.

I do expect that any speech he gives will have two main points: continuing to hammer the issues, and a call to defeat Trump.

[PoliticAverse]

6. I'm thinking he makes a case for 2 or 3 of his most important issues...

brings everyone together with a strong attack on Trump and
makes an argument in favor of Clinton and a call unity.

[djean111]

7. I have to laugh at the child-like or condescendingly dismissive assertion (wish? hope?)

that all it will take is a speech from Bernie to get those who hate Hillary's stances ON THE ISSUES to just meekly fall in line.
Bernie knows that. As my sig line says - Bernie is not the Pied Piper. He is a harbinger.

Hell, there is not even a speech that could convince me to keep my party membership, at this point. Pushing a candidate who loves war and fracking, etc. How the hell is that the Democratic Party?

[Miles Archer]

12. As I have said many times...

...there's a big difference between Sanders holding up Clinton as the means to defeat Trump and Sanders endorsing her.

I don't believe he is going to endorse her.

I don't believe he will go out and stump for her policies and platforms.

He can break all ties with the Democrats and go his own way, or he can stump for defeating Trump without it actually being a Clinton endorsement, which means he will still have a connection to Democrats.

I believe his supporters will know the difference.

I don't see him having anything other than a token role in the Clinton administration. If anything is offered, it will more likely be a move to placate him and his followers while keeping him at a safe distance rather than anything else.

[Hortensis]

23. I feel sure that's what Sanders would want to do,

stay independent and work from the outside, and the suggestions for what he might try were very interesting. There's so much to do I feel sure more than a token project could be come up with, but hopefully (from HRC's viewpoint) one that didn't give him a lot of scope to cause trouble for the administration. Thanks for posting, Miles.

Btw, apparently McGovern deserves to be up on Mount Rushmore, elected to the presidency or not. Who knew?

[LWolf]

2. "There's really two ways to look at Democratic Party unity."

Adam Green: There's really two ways to look at Democratic Party unity. One approach would be functionally telling Sanders supporters to get in line to defeat Donald Trump. Saying, "Nothing else matters." The other approach is to genuinely unite millions of Clinton and Sanders supporters around big, bold, progressive ideas that both candidates campaigned on in the primary. Ideas like debt-free college, expanded Social Security benefits, breaking up too-big-to-fail banks. So it's actually essential for Hillary Clinton as she aims to bring Sanders supporters into the fold, but also as she fends off Donald Trump's fake economic populism on issues like Social Security and trade, for her to go big on these progressive issues.

I think we all know which way I personally will smack down like a fly hovering over my picnic and which will get my support.

[djean111]

8. "to go big on these progressive issues." Who is naive enough to believe her, at this point?

Beuller? Beuller?

It would just be the usual and easily cast aside political pandering.

[LWolf]

9. My take:

She and her ego are completely invested in being the president, and the first woman president. I know she's smart. I don't think she's principled. Is she smart enough to respond in time to what we've all been saying all along, demonstrated in this poll? Or will she cling to neo-liberalism and her corporate backers?

Hillary sinks to third place among independent voters: poll

It looks like Hillary Clinton can’t swing the crucial swing vote.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee took a beating from independent voters in the latest Fox News poll, finishing third behind relatively unknown Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson.

http://nypost.com/2016/06/11/hillary-sinks-to-third-place-among-independent-voters-poll/

[djean111]

10. Here is the trouble with some very smart people - they believe everybody else is stupid.

And they get away with what they inflict, because we are not stupid, we just never see it coming, for various reasons. Thus, the ridiculousness of giving out "favorite cleaning products", as if that were a great reason to vote for her. Demeaning, IMO, especially from someone who waves the feminism flag around. False flag, indeed.

She will never be anything but a neo-liberal neo-con. I think she would tell us that to our faces - but it would not be politically expedient.

[Miles Archer]

14. We get a lot of that here, too.

I've seen Sanders supporters referred to as "spoiled children" and much worse.

Many of the Clinton supporters have worked to restore civility in the last week, and I applaud them for it.

Others still feel that taking a superior, didactic, sarcastic and self-satisfied tone is the answer. My guess is that they take the same approach in other areas of their lives as well, and while it's sad, they're not my children, and it's not my job to point out their self-limiting behavior.

[LWolf]

16. I agree.

And that's why I can't get way from considering those who have shoved her down our throats to be traitors.

[Miles Archer]

13. I agree with you 100%

Sadly, it's also the kind of comment that will result in bloodlust on Thursday, when many, many fingers reach to click the "alert" link, and that's a shame, because it really is the alligator-filled moat that separates Clinton from many of the voters who are not ready to "rally behind" her now, or ever.

Clinton supporters simply do not want to hear "She and her ego are completely invested in being the president, and the first woman president."

And that's a shame, because for me, it's the truth.

[LWolf]

15. Yes. nt

[Live and Learn]

11. I don't think Bernie needs or wants advice from Mother Jones. nt

[BobbyDrake]

17. Well, one of his problems is that he doesn't take others' advice at all, so that's not surprising.

Bernie Sanders likes to lecture, not listen.

[Live and Learn]

18. Really tired of people that have no idea about Bernie posting crap like that. nt

[BobbyDrake]

19. I've watched him campaign. He doesn't do events where people speak to him, only ones where he's the

center of attention. You wonder why he lost NY? Because while he was touring the state on another lecture circuit, Clinton was visiting people where they lived and worked, meeting with people on a small enough scale that she could engage with them, listen to their concerns, and then apply her policy positions to those people and their circumstances. That's what won people over to her.

I'm not sorry that you are finding out that being able to give one speech over and over and over doesn't make a candidate successful. You needed to learn it eventually, though, so you're better off now that you've seen it for yourself.

[Live and Learn]

20. Peolple that have no idea about Bernie shouldn't display their ignorance.

You don't know what you are posting about.

[BobbyDrake]

21. I think you're projecting, especially how for two comments you've had no reply but insults at me.

People that have no idea how to construct a rational argument should probably avoid trying to debate others who do.

[Live and Learn]

22. I stand by my post. You are simply wrong. nt

[Demsrule86]

24. Concede and endorse...no concession then no speech. nt

[Fumesucker]

25. Would seppuku show sufficient shame and remorse for his awful transgressions?

Or perhaps his crimes are so egregious that sippenhaft should apply.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sippenhaft

[LWolf]

26. Keep the momentum going.

Wikler: There is a question as to whether these rallies are going to stop in the fall. I think they should continue. They are a tremendous display of energy but also a source of energy, because people come out of them ready to fight.

When Sanders was challenged about how he would pass his visionary ideas after he became president, he talked about if lawmakers look out the window and they see a million people marching, it changes their calculus. Well, here's an opportunity to continue working to organize these million people even if he is not the one in office.

MJ: So pick a legislative fight, do a barnstorming tour, and get people in the streets. That's the model?