Sanders' Legacy After Super Tuesday: The Left Primary Challenge
Wednesday, 02 March 2016 00:00 By Robert Naiman, Truthout | Op-Ed
Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks to a crowd of supporters
during a campaign rally in Portland, Oregon. (Photo: Benjamin Kerensa)
Every American on the left knows that when labor leader Eugene Debs ran for
president in 1920 as a socialist, he got a million votes.
I don't know if Howard Zinn would approve this message, but by this
standard, Team Bernie Sanders is arguably kicking Debs' butt. Sanders has
more than a million campaign contributors. A campaign contribution, for an
ordinary person of modest means, is like a vote with a little bit of extra
blood on it. You mean business. It costs you something. You have skin in the
game.
Every member of Team Sanders knows that the average contribution to Sanders
is $27. This is a regular theme of Sanders' speeches. When Sanders says,
"...and the average contribution to this campaign is ..." the crowd shouts,
"Twenty-seven dollars!"
For more original Truthout election coverage, check out our election
section, "Beyond the Sound Bites: Election 2016."
And of course, Eugene Debs did not win New Hampshire, Colorado, Oklahoma,
Vermont and Minnesota, like Sanders just did. As a midwest nationalist, I am
especially happy about the Minnesota result. Eugene Debs was from Indiana.
Emma Goldman is buried in Chicago with the Haymarket martyrs who died
fighting for the eight-hour workday. Mother Jones is buried in Mount Olive,
Illinois alongside miners who died in the Battle of Virden. People from the
midwest know these things.
I went to a Sanders appearance at the Minneapolis Convention Center the day
before the caucus. The "warm-up acts" were as impressive as the main
speaker. Lisa Bender, a member of the Minneapolis City Council, talked about
local issues. Winona LaDuke talked about protecting our environment from
corporate greed. Keystone XL isn't the only oil pipeline we need to stop,
she said; we need a government that will build infrastructure for people,
not oil companies. Keith Ellison talked about the right to tuition-free
public college. If the UK can do it, if Denmark can do it, we can do it too,
Ellison said. More than talking about Sanders, each was giving their own
version of "The Speech."
Regardless of what happens at the Democratic convention, Bender, LaDuke and
Ellison will still be with us, and this will be Sanders' lasting legacy,
helping to mobilize a wave of progressive activists to engagement and
challenge in the political system, and establishing a culture of primary
challenges to the establishment on the left like the one that which now
exists on the right. The right has more influence in the Republican Party
than the left has in the Democratic Party because the right has mastered the
weapon of the primary challenge. When the left masters the primary challenge
weapon, the left will have more influence.
The establishment hates contested primaries because they hate competition.
In the establishment's ideal election, the establishment would anoint the
candidate and everyone else would accept without question the
establishment's choice. But making the establishment happy by avoiding
contested primaries is terrible for democracy, and terrible for people who
want to talk about issues that the establishment doesn't want to talk about.
We're building an army for the long march through the institutions. With the
right campaigns, voting and encouraging others to vote can be like Zuccotti
Park without the tear gas: occupy Schoolhouse Rock. One, two, three, many
Ellisons, as the Argentine doctor might have said.
Just as every American has the right to health care, just as every high
school student who applies themselves has the right to tuition-free public
college, so every American has the right to participate in this movement,
even if they aren't so fortunate as to live in Minnesota. Count every vote.
Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
ROBERT NAIMAN
Robert Naiman is policy director at Just Foreign Policy and president of
Truthout's board of directors.
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Sanders' Legacy After Super Tuesday: The Left Primary Challenge
Wednesday, 02 March 2016 00:00 By Robert Naiman, Truthout | Op-Ed
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reference not valid.
. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks to a crowd of
supporters during a campaign rally in Portland, Oregon. (Photo: Benjamin
Kerensa)
. Every American on the left knows that when labor leader Eugene Debs
ran for president in 1920 as a socialist, he got a million votes.
I don't know if Howard Zinn would approve this message, but by this
standard, Team Bernie Sanders is arguably kicking Debs' butt. Sanders has
more than a million campaign contributors. A campaign contribution, for an
ordinary person of modest means, is like a vote with a little bit of extra
blood on it. You mean business. It costs you something. You have skin in the
game.
Every member of Team Sanders knows that the average contribution to Sanders
is $27. This is a regular theme of Sanders' speeches. When Sanders says,
"...and the average contribution to this campaign is ..." the crowd shouts,
"Twenty-seven dollars!"
For more original Truthout election coverage, check out our election
section, "Beyond the Sound Bites: Election 2016."
And of course, Eugene Debs did not win New Hampshire, Colorado, Oklahoma,
Vermont and Minnesota, like Sanders just did. As a midwest nationalist, I am
especially happy about the Minnesota result. Eugene Debs was from Indiana.
Emma Goldman is buried in Chicago with the Haymarket martyrs who died
fighting for the eight-hour workday. Mother Jones is buried in Mount Olive,
Illinois alongside miners who died in the Battle of Virden. People from the
midwest know these things.
I went to a Sanders appearance at the Minneapolis Convention Center the day
before the caucus. The "warm-up acts" were as impressive as the main
speaker. Lisa Bender, a member of the Minneapolis City Council, talked about
local issues. Winona LaDuke talked about protecting our environment from
corporate greed. Keystone XL isn't the only oil pipeline we need to stop,
she said; we need a government that will build infrastructure for people,
not oil companies. Keith Ellison talked about the right to tuition-free
public college. If the UK can do it, if Denmark can do it, we can do it too,
Ellison said. More than talking about Sanders, each was giving their own
version of "The Speech."
Regardless of what happens at the Democratic convention, Bender, LaDuke and
Ellison will still be with us, and this will be Sanders' lasting legacy,
helping to mobilize a wave of progressive activists to engagement and
challenge in the political system, and establishing a culture of primary
challenges to the establishment on the left like the one that which now
exists on the right. The right has more influence in the Republican Party
than the left has in the Democratic Party because the right has mastered the
weapon of the primary challenge. When the left masters the primary challenge
weapon, the left will have more influence.
The establishment hates contested primaries because they hate competition.
In the establishment's ideal election, the establishment would anoint the
candidate and everyone else would accept without question the
establishment's choice. But making the establishment happy by avoiding
contested primaries is terrible for democracy, and terrible for people who
want to talk about issues that the establishment doesn't want to talk about.
We're building an army for the long march through the institutions. With the
right campaigns, voting and encouraging others to vote can be like Zuccotti
Park without the tear gas: occupy Schoolhouse Rock. One, two, three, many
Ellisons, as the Argentine doctor might have said.
Just as every American has the right to health care, just as every high
school student who applies themselves has the right to tuition-free public
college, so every American has the right to participate in this movement,
even if they aren't so fortunate as to live in Minnesota. Count every vote.
Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
Robert Naiman
Robert Naiman is policy director at Just Foreign Policy and president of
Truthout's board of directors.
Related Stories
Elizabeth Warren: It Matters Greatly Who the Democratic President Is
By Robert Naiman, Truthout | Op-EdSanders' Media Critics Should Concede That
Fixing the US Is a Foreign Policy
By Robert Naiman, Truthout | Op-EdSecretary of State Hillary Clinton Enabled
the Coup in Honduras
By Robert Naiman, Truthout | Op-Ed
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