He’s been arguing this on the Cushvlogs.
There’s truth in it, but it’s not the whole truth, not the only truth.
Just this year, most American lefties - from disparate groups to isolated individuals - coalesced to credibly threaten to pull together the majority of American voters in the presidential election to put a beloved, irascible, smart old leftie codger into the White House.
The ‘Not me. Us’ movement.
It was the only presidential campaign I remember that issued a moral challenge to its supporters - fight as hard for people who are different from you.
I could only cheer from afar.
I watched you knock on doors and talk to people, phonebank and talk to more people, donate and tell your friends.
I watched you post until you were saw!
It was a loss, but it was not a failure.
There is a structure that the ‘Not me. Us’ campaign built that must be used to campaign hard, right now, for Medicare For All.
If that structure - all the contacts and lines of communication - were handed over to the DNC to be used to elect yet another racist rapist, that would be a grim failure.
And if the ‘Not me, Us’ campaign is allowed to dissipate and is not used - that will be a failure.
Flex that muscle now, or let it wither.
It just feels like the No True Libertarian shit I see on that corner of Reddit. Everything from Occupy to BLM to the Berniecrats get dismissed as "Not Real Leftism", and as a result you've got guys like Jimmy Dore and AOC sniping at each other.
It's an ideological diaspora, without a strong reliable institutional vanguard movement to congeal around. But you could say the same about any political project without proper full-time staff and corporate sponsorship.
There's definitely a hunger for a leftist movement, but the foundation still hasn't been laid.
Cush is wrong, you're more right but still wrong too. The Bernie campaign won't leave behind any useful structure, at least not in the campaign infrastructure itself. The people who were inspired by that campaign who fold into PSL, dsa, Salt, and IWW are the 'left' and are forming into a useful muscle imo.
I’m beginning to enjoy this business of being down-beared whenever I go looking for a good fight to cheer!
The Bernie campaign won’t leave behind any useful structure
Our Revolution, an expanded DSA, Indivisible, and an assortment of other local organizations will persist in the wake of the campaign. Bernie's social network will reconstitute during election years, and his campaign aids and allies are already being promoted in media and politics for subsequent power struggles.
We don't have a Neara Tanden style Center For American Progress holding-tank for Berniecrats, but we're getting there.
About February this year, I fantasised that we might see a President Sanders visit a picket line to rally workers in a dispute against their bosses.
I wondered if such a moment might be so odd, that it would introduce the idea to American workers that the government need not always be on the side of their bosses.
Then I looked again at the Democratic Party establishment. Damn.
I fear you’re right. That fear will make it true. We must fight for better.
My coping mechanism is to look for a fight to cheer.
Maybe if I try just calling all such efforts ‘cope’, I’ll cope better.
If that structure - all the contacts and lines of communication - were handed over to the DNC to be used to elect yet another racist rapist, that would be a grim failure.
Not to burst your bubble but that essentially already happened as soon as he dropped out. I think it mostly is used to do campaigning for the "left" democrats like the squad and Warnock right now.
i has a whole effort post, but I think cush’s right. there’s leftist energy, and momentum’s growing, but it’s still not big enough. not enough to be “The Left”.
Also, if there was a left in this country then the leading progressive activist on the left right now probably wouldn't be Jimmy Dore lol
Being left of the democrats isn't leftism, Bernie wasn't even trying to win, he's paid to lose and you were taken for a ride.
Bernie wasn’t even trying to win
This is your brain on RadLiberalism
