A post on how we have already won

[Tom Rinaldo]

Cross posted in GD-P (some minor edits, including different subject header, added here).

I keep watching the flood of inspirational campaign ads and powerfully progressive campaign speeches released by the Sanders campaign daily, and pinch myself to see if I'm dreaming, then happily wince to know that I am not. No, this isn't a dream, it is really happening, my dream for America starting to actually come true. To finally witness an election campaign fought over the issues that fundamentally matter to the vast majority of our citizens, with wealth inequality for example not merely referenced in passing as an ill that we must improve on, but instead forcefully condemned as the malevolent goal of an economic oligarchy is, frankly, mind blowing. So is the Sanders full throated and unapologetic shout out to all of America's better angels; peace, compassion, inclusion, justice, equity and fair play.

Bernie may be a Democratic Socialist but there is nothing foreign about his appeal. His belief in what makes us great is as American as apple pie, and people across our political spectrum are buying it, socialist label and all, which is frankly, yes, mind blowing.

Myths get shattered daily. Is a Super PAC essential to a Presidential campaign? Not when you appeal directly to the public. Is a major media news blockade fatal to a Presidential candidate? Not when social media goes over, under, and around it. Does it take a powerful political machine to take on a powerful political machine? Not when a powerful message and a movement is on your side. Are the young too flaky to propel a political revolution? HELL NO!

Can we make it over the top this time around? Stay tuned, To Be Announced, but the trend line now is unmistakable. The battle has been engaged and the demographics have spoken; America's future will be progressive. With every day that the Bernie Sanders campaign surges the message it carries propagates further. The progressive genie is out of the bottle and is out there pressing flesh. Issues are boldly spoken of on a national stage that are usually confined to PBS documentaries: Institutional racism, universal access to higher education, single payer health insurance, poverty rates in America, climate change, retirement with dignity, corporate friendly trade polices, the list goes on and on.

If Hillary Clinton's progressive supporters are as certain as they say they are that she already has the Democratic nomination securely in the bag, what with delegate math and all, then they too should be hoping that this primary contest doesn't wrap up any time soon - because it is already changing America in ways that few of us dreamed possible.

[StandingInLeftField]

1. You can't fight tRUMP et al with "incremental change"...

or "tweaks" or "staying within the existing system."

No. You. Can't.

You fight the Good Fight! By being bold, by not taking "NO!" for an answer, by daring to challenge what others believe to be unchallengeable.

[merrily]

2. A post from yesterday about how Sanders has already won.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=1492813

It cites arcane1's great thread from May 15, 2015, stating Sanders had already won (soon after Sanders' informal announcement of his run): http://www.democraticunderground.com/12778005

And my own post on the sea changes that Senator Sanders effected, with help from his supporters
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1280109865

The revolution is underway and, short of another Kent State, I think stopping it will be very, very difficult.

[Peace Patriot]

3. My sentiments exactly, on every point! Thank you, Tom Rinaldo...

...for putting it so succinctly and elegantly.

This is especially good:

"Bernie may be a Democratic Socialist but there is nothing foreign about his appeal. His belief in what makes us great is as American as apple pie, and people across our political spectrum are buying it, socialist label and all, which is frankly, yes, mind blowing." --my emphasis

And this:

"...the trend line now is unmistakable. The battle has been engaged.... With every day that the Bernie Sanders campaign surges the message it carries propagates further. The progressive genie is out of the bottle and is out there pressing flesh. Issues are boldly spoken of on a national stage that are usually confined to PBS documentaries: Institutional racism, universal access to higher education, single payer health insurance, poverty rates in America, climate change, retirement with dignity, corporate friendly trade polices, the list goes on and on." --my emphasis

Mind blowing is how I feel about it, too. The things this man SAYS that can't be said! And not only says on a national stage, but says to roaring crowds of 10,000 and 20,000 people, who know precisely what they are saying when they chant, "Feel the Bern!" It burns to hear the truth spoken. It burns down the lies, the masks, the mealy-mouthed blather of "centrist" politics. It ignites your soul!

I keep thinking of the gravitational wave that was just discovered (with scientists saying that it is the most important discovery in human history)--a force that alters space-time itself, as it rolls across billions of light years and reaches our detectors. Alters space-time itself. Bernie has altered political space-time. Nothing can ever be the same again. The spell of Reaganomics and Clinton neo-liberalism and Bushwhack tax cuts for the rich is BROKEN. Whatever happens on the temporal front--the immediate outcomes of votes--does matter, but the field on which it occurs is so changed for the better that it can swallow up a temporal loss and emit the light of progressive change as a by-product.

[Tom Rinaldo]

5. "The spell of Reaganomics and Clinton neo-liberalism and Bushwhack tax cuts for the rich is BROKEN."

Yes it is. That too is especially well stated!

[tk2kewl]

7. !!!!!!!

[flamingdem]

4. Bookmarking to remember this day

[Stardust]

6. Wonderful post!

[BernieforPres2016]

8. I wish I could be as optimistic

I don't think we've already won. I think we win if Bernie wins. If Bernie doesn't win, Hillary and the DNC will try to pretend it never happened. And my hope would be that Bernie would start a 3rd party movement after the general election to try to carry the principles of this campaign into the future and to hold the Democratic Party accountable to progressive principles, beginning with campaign finance reform. Without that, there is never going to be any significant change in the current system.

As for Hillary Clinton's progressive supporters, I have no idea why a progressive who looked at her history would vote for her.

But I do share your enthusiasm over finally having a Presidential candidate that I can vote for with enthusiasm rather than as the lesser of two evils.

[Tom Rinaldo]

9. Could be a glass half full statement

That is if Bernie doesn't get the nomination, if he does our cup overfloweth. But in either case, compared to where we were a year ago I am amazed, for all of the reasons that I wrote. It is already an incredible achievement.

I doubt there are many of what I would consider hard core progressives backing Hillary now, but I know some folks personally who can make a claim to be progressive who back Hillary - they each have their own reasons for doing so. In the bigger picture though it is the the massive backing Bernie is winning from younger voters that makes me most hopeful, and not just those still in college etc, but from people in their 30's and up also. They all collectively represent our future