Much of the energy behind the Sanders campaign is generated by what corporate media outlets often criticize or mock--Bernie's consistency as he keeps denouncing massive income inequality and corporate power. (Photo: Preston Ehrler/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Bernie Sanders' People-Powered Campaign Is on Fire
The Bernie 2020 campaign is a crucible of broader activism from the grassroots that can spark uprisings of heat and light.
To corporate media, Bernie Sanders is incorrigible. He won't stop defying the standard assumptions about what's possible in national politics. His 2020 campaign--with feet on the ground and eyes on visionary horizons -- is a danger to corporate capitalism's "natural" order that enables wealth to dominate the political process.
When the New York Times published its dual endorsement of Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren on Sunday night, the newspaper patted Sanders on the head before disparaging him. "He boasts that compromise is anathema to him," the editorial complained. "Only his prescriptions can be the right ones, even though most are overly rigid, untested and divisive."
Bernie Sanders has ample reasons to be all on fire, and so do the social movements that are propelling his campaign for president.
Such complaints have been common for centuries, hurled at all the great movements for human rights--and their leaders. The basic concept of abolishing slavery was "rigid, untested and divisive." When one of the leading abolitionists, William Lloyd Garrison, was cautioned to cool it because he seemed on fire, Garrison replied: "I have need to be all on fire, for there are mountains of ice around me to melt."
Bernie Sanders has ample reasons to be all on fire, and so do the social movements that are propelling his campaign for president. They refuse to accept the go-slow advice from the liberal establishment about fighting against systemic cruelties and disasters--healthcare injustice, vast economic inequality, mass incarceration, institutional racism, the climate emergency, perpetual war and so much more.
The Bernie 2020 campaign is a crucible of broader activism from the grassroots that can spark uprisings of heat and light. To the extent that passivity and fatalism melt away, possibilities for gaining power become more tangible.
Martin Luther King Jr. readily acknowledged that "power without love is reckless and abusive"--but he emphasized that "love without power is sentimental and anemic." So, where does that leave us in relation to seeking power?
"Power, properly understood, is the ability to achieve purpose," Dr. King wrote. "It is the strength required to bring about social, political or economic changes. In this sense power is not only desirable but necessary in order to implement the demands of love and justice."
That's what the Bernie 2020 campaign is about--the necessity of gaining power "in order to implement the demands of love and justice." And that helps to explain why the campaign is so profoundly compelling at the grassroots. It is oriented to meshing electoral work with social movements--however difficult that might be at times--to generate political power from the ground up. And that's where genuine progressive change really comes from.
"The parties and candidates are not the agents of change," a former chair of the California Democratic Party's Progressive Caucus, Karen Bernal, said a few days ago at a pro-Sanders forum in San Rafael. "It's the other way around. They respond to the outside forces of movements."
Bernal was elected as co-chair of California's Sanders delegation to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, and she is strongly supporting the Bernie 2020 campaign. While remaining intensely engaged with elections, Bernal keeps her eyes on the prize. "We don't want to turn this into a cult of personalities," she said. "It's about the movement."
Much of the energy behind the Sanders campaign is generated by what corporate media outlets often criticize or mock--Bernie's consistency as he keeps denouncing massive income inequality and corporate power. In the process, he confronts head-on the system that enables huge profiteering by such enterprises as the healthcare industry, fossil-fuel companies, private prisons and the military-industrial complex.
By remaining part of social movements, Bernie has made himself especially antithetical to the elite sensibilities of corporate media. Elites rarely appreciate any movement that is challenging their unjust power.
The electoral strength of the Bernie Sanders campaign is enmeshed with intensities of feeling and resolve for progressive change that pollsters and editorial writers are ill-equipped to measure or comprehend. The potential has sometimes been called "the power of the people." Whatever you call it, such power is usually subjugated. But when it breaks free, there's no telling what might happen.
We are at a crossroads
This country and this world are at a monumental crossroads. US voters have an opportunity to beat back the forces of fascism and confront the billionaires who are rigging the economy, our media system, and our democracy, making it increasingly impossible for ordinary people to get by. We’re not just talking about the election. We’re talking about what must be done once these fascist elements are vanquished from power. We need a bolder set of solutions than what either major party has so far been willing to offer and a working-class movement ready to fight like hell for it. Trump didn't emerge from nowhere. The conditions that fueled MAGA authoritarianism were created by decades of radical neoliberal economic policies and a corrupt political system dominated by corporate interests. They slashed taxes on the super-rich, promising that the benefits would trickle down. They said giveaways to the corporate titans would make life more affordable for the rest of us. It was all bullshit. And when a bitter, betrayed populace searches for someone to blame, right-wing demagogues have little trouble finding scapegoats. People know when they're being lied to, but you won't hear any of this from the corporate media. Only independent journalism—powered and funded by people who believe in building a better world—can deliver truly trustworthy daily news. Our Fall Campaign is underway, and we need your help. To power our newsroom through the rest of the year, we need to raise $125,000 by midnight on October 31. So if you share our vision, please contribute whatever you can to sustain our work. |
Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. The paperback edition of his latest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, includes an afterword about the Gaza war.
To corporate media, Bernie Sanders is incorrigible. He won't stop defying the standard assumptions about what's possible in national politics. His 2020 campaign--with feet on the ground and eyes on visionary horizons -- is a danger to corporate capitalism's "natural" order that enables wealth to dominate the political process.
When the New York Times published its dual endorsement of Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren on Sunday night, the newspaper patted Sanders on the head before disparaging him. "He boasts that compromise is anathema to him," the editorial complained. "Only his prescriptions can be the right ones, even though most are overly rigid, untested and divisive."
Bernie Sanders has ample reasons to be all on fire, and so do the social movements that are propelling his campaign for president.
Such complaints have been common for centuries, hurled at all the great movements for human rights--and their leaders. The basic concept of abolishing slavery was "rigid, untested and divisive." When one of the leading abolitionists, William Lloyd Garrison, was cautioned to cool it because he seemed on fire, Garrison replied: "I have need to be all on fire, for there are mountains of ice around me to melt."
Bernie Sanders has ample reasons to be all on fire, and so do the social movements that are propelling his campaign for president. They refuse to accept the go-slow advice from the liberal establishment about fighting against systemic cruelties and disasters--healthcare injustice, vast economic inequality, mass incarceration, institutional racism, the climate emergency, perpetual war and so much more.
The Bernie 2020 campaign is a crucible of broader activism from the grassroots that can spark uprisings of heat and light. To the extent that passivity and fatalism melt away, possibilities for gaining power become more tangible.
Martin Luther King Jr. readily acknowledged that "power without love is reckless and abusive"--but he emphasized that "love without power is sentimental and anemic." So, where does that leave us in relation to seeking power?
"Power, properly understood, is the ability to achieve purpose," Dr. King wrote. "It is the strength required to bring about social, political or economic changes. In this sense power is not only desirable but necessary in order to implement the demands of love and justice."
That's what the Bernie 2020 campaign is about--the necessity of gaining power "in order to implement the demands of love and justice." And that helps to explain why the campaign is so profoundly compelling at the grassroots. It is oriented to meshing electoral work with social movements--however difficult that might be at times--to generate political power from the ground up. And that's where genuine progressive change really comes from.
"The parties and candidates are not the agents of change," a former chair of the California Democratic Party's Progressive Caucus, Karen Bernal, said a few days ago at a pro-Sanders forum in San Rafael. "It's the other way around. They respond to the outside forces of movements."
Bernal was elected as co-chair of California's Sanders delegation to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, and she is strongly supporting the Bernie 2020 campaign. While remaining intensely engaged with elections, Bernal keeps her eyes on the prize. "We don't want to turn this into a cult of personalities," she said. "It's about the movement."
Much of the energy behind the Sanders campaign is generated by what corporate media outlets often criticize or mock--Bernie's consistency as he keeps denouncing massive income inequality and corporate power. In the process, he confronts head-on the system that enables huge profiteering by such enterprises as the healthcare industry, fossil-fuel companies, private prisons and the military-industrial complex.
By remaining part of social movements, Bernie has made himself especially antithetical to the elite sensibilities of corporate media. Elites rarely appreciate any movement that is challenging their unjust power.
The electoral strength of the Bernie Sanders campaign is enmeshed with intensities of feeling and resolve for progressive change that pollsters and editorial writers are ill-equipped to measure or comprehend. The potential has sometimes been called "the power of the people." Whatever you call it, such power is usually subjugated. But when it breaks free, there's no telling what might happen.
Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. The paperback edition of his latest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, includes an afterword about the Gaza war.
To corporate media, Bernie Sanders is incorrigible. He won't stop defying the standard assumptions about what's possible in national politics. His 2020 campaign--with feet on the ground and eyes on visionary horizons -- is a danger to corporate capitalism's "natural" order that enables wealth to dominate the political process.
When the New York Times published its dual endorsement of Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren on Sunday night, the newspaper patted Sanders on the head before disparaging him. "He boasts that compromise is anathema to him," the editorial complained. "Only his prescriptions can be the right ones, even though most are overly rigid, untested and divisive."
Bernie Sanders has ample reasons to be all on fire, and so do the social movements that are propelling his campaign for president.
Such complaints have been common for centuries, hurled at all the great movements for human rights--and their leaders. The basic concept of abolishing slavery was "rigid, untested and divisive." When one of the leading abolitionists, William Lloyd Garrison, was cautioned to cool it because he seemed on fire, Garrison replied: "I have need to be all on fire, for there are mountains of ice around me to melt."
Bernie Sanders has ample reasons to be all on fire, and so do the social movements that are propelling his campaign for president. They refuse to accept the go-slow advice from the liberal establishment about fighting against systemic cruelties and disasters--healthcare injustice, vast economic inequality, mass incarceration, institutional racism, the climate emergency, perpetual war and so much more.
The Bernie 2020 campaign is a crucible of broader activism from the grassroots that can spark uprisings of heat and light. To the extent that passivity and fatalism melt away, possibilities for gaining power become more tangible.
Martin Luther King Jr. readily acknowledged that "power without love is reckless and abusive"--but he emphasized that "love without power is sentimental and anemic." So, where does that leave us in relation to seeking power?
"Power, properly understood, is the ability to achieve purpose," Dr. King wrote. "It is the strength required to bring about social, political or economic changes. In this sense power is not only desirable but necessary in order to implement the demands of love and justice."
That's what the Bernie 2020 campaign is about--the necessity of gaining power "in order to implement the demands of love and justice." And that helps to explain why the campaign is so profoundly compelling at the grassroots. It is oriented to meshing electoral work with social movements--however difficult that might be at times--to generate political power from the ground up. And that's where genuine progressive change really comes from.
"The parties and candidates are not the agents of change," a former chair of the California Democratic Party's Progressive Caucus, Karen Bernal, said a few days ago at a pro-Sanders forum in San Rafael. "It's the other way around. They respond to the outside forces of movements."
Bernal was elected as co-chair of California's Sanders delegation to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, and she is strongly supporting the Bernie 2020 campaign. While remaining intensely engaged with elections, Bernal keeps her eyes on the prize. "We don't want to turn this into a cult of personalities," she said. "It's about the movement."
Much of the energy behind the Sanders campaign is generated by what corporate media outlets often criticize or mock--Bernie's consistency as he keeps denouncing massive income inequality and corporate power. In the process, he confronts head-on the system that enables huge profiteering by such enterprises as the healthcare industry, fossil-fuel companies, private prisons and the military-industrial complex.
By remaining part of social movements, Bernie has made himself especially antithetical to the elite sensibilities of corporate media. Elites rarely appreciate any movement that is challenging their unjust power.
The electoral strength of the Bernie Sanders campaign is enmeshed with intensities of feeling and resolve for progressive change that pollsters and editorial writers are ill-equipped to measure or comprehend. The potential has sometimes been called "the power of the people." Whatever you call it, such power is usually subjugated. But when it breaks free, there's no telling what might happen.