WIDem Chair says Bernie looking to help in WI races

[HereSince1628]

Laning: Bernie Sanders wants to help Democrats in Wisconsin
Published On: Jul 20 2016 11:15:09 AM CDT
http://www.channel3000.com/news/laning-bernie-sanders-wants-to-help-democrats-in-wisconsin/40799230

State party chair Martha Laning said in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday that the Sanders campaign has been in touch about campaigning in the state. She said "he'd like to know about races we'd like help with."

Laning did not say what races those may be.

Sanders has deep support in Wisconsin. He won the state's April primary over Hillary Clinton by 13 points.

Neither Clinton nor Sanders has been back to the state since. Clinton was scheduled to make her first appearance with President Barack Obama in Green Bay, but it was canceled because of the Orlando nightclub shooting.

[HereSince1628]

1. A few reasons why this is worth noting...

Sanders remains interested in working within the Dem party, and encouraging people to support Dem candidates
Sanders is interested in encouraging primary voters who supported him to support down ticket Dems.

This is suggestive of Sanders not being especially interested in trying to achieve the goals of his movement from either the Greens or a new, free-standing progressive party.

I know there are posts to FB and to JPR that are pushing for those things. But, I haven't seen anything, yet, to suggest that Sanders is much interested in establishing his movement outside the Dems.

[Sherman A1]

2. From what I can conclude

I believe that he is most certainly looking to help where he can within the party to get more progressive folks elected. That said I believe the movement he has mentioned will necessarily be a parallel effort as well and frankly there is no reason why it should not be so. He is nothing if not pragmatic.

[HereSince1628]

3. I think it's true that he's interested in helping more progressive candidates.

I'm not really sure what you mean by the movement being a 'parallel effort'. Maybe you could flesh that out a bit.

[Sherman A1]

4. I see it as working within the party when possible and

independent of the party when that is a better method. Not everything involves political parties or really needs to do so.

[HereSince1628]

5. While I think he wants to attract progressives from everywhere

I haven't seen any evidence of him moving outside the party structure

[merrily]

6. Once the election is over, I hope he works on issues.

You don't have to be a Democrat to want clean water, for example.

[HereSince1628]

7. I don't know who you are saying is not having to be a dem

I know that JPR and FB have vocal contingents suggesting doing something other than democrats.

And it's true that Dems don't have a lock on voters with progressive interests (there are millions who are unaffiliated).

The Dems just happen to have the largest numbers of progressives who affiliate with a party. And that's significant. Because starting a new party or ramping up an existing very much under-performing party such as the Greens puts a significant front-end cost on trying to move a movement forward.

Having placed only second in the presidential primary and revealing structural problems created by the party establishment isn't really a catastrophe. It's simply revealed the need for much more progressives being involved and engaged in actions that make the needed change.

Similar problems to those existing in May of 2015 still exist in the Dem party, and across the American political landscape. The Dem party structure still provides advantages over starting from scratch, or fixing a weak party with a brand problem.

[merrily]

8. I was referring to humans. People care about clean drinking water, which was the example I used.

I was not referring to a third party or, for that matter, to any political party. I was referring to the fact that we, as a population, can attack certain issues without even thinking about which party, if any, someone belongs to. Granted, we cannot do that with every issue, but humans have a lot in common.

This is an older post, but, with the caveat that I have not updated the research, it is illustrative. http://www.democraticunderground.com/12777036