For Mayor Sanders, Wielding Power Meant Mobilizing Disaffected People To Vote And Ejecting Entrenched Democrats

Paul Waters-Smith noted, over at Current Affairs that if we want to build popular power, we need an organizer-in-chief and urged his readers to take a chance with a Socialist and "back the one and only chance at a pro-labor presidency we’re likely to have for a generation. We’ve got an incredible chance and it would be criminally irresponsible not to take it. There are five core reasons why a Sanders presidency represents such an unprecedented opportunity:

1- The power of the “bully pulpit” is immense, shaping the expectations and visions of what is possible for working people and rich alike, and creating the opportunity for social movements to grow.

2- Bernie 2020 is running a working class left-wing campaign, clearly aimed at governing from the streets, not in the backrooms of Washington or in Martha’s Vineyard.

3- Sanders speaks like a good organizer and labor leader, and his proposals are universal guarantees that can serve as movement rallying-cries.

4- The Sanders 2016 campaign has already proven an enormous boon to the left, and changed the country in ways that offer a small preview of the immense changes that could occur if he were elected.

5- Radical politics is not a luxury at this point in history. It is an absolute do-or-die necessity, and Bernie’s is the only candidacy that makes effective climate action conceivable. 

"We don’t get a whole lot of viable left candidates in the United States," he concluded. "Bernie is the first such presidential candidate in at least 96 years. And he’s the first ever self-described Socialist to come anywhere near the office. The potential of a Sanders presidency to remake our concept of the politically possible and breathe new life into workers’, socialist, and left-wing movements is overwhelming. And given the looming deadline to save dozens of nations from climate oblivion, it’s an opportunity we cannot afford to give up. When we look back in decades, we do not want to have to say: We saw this chance and we watched it go by. A very special moment has come, a moment that could change the future of the country and even of human society. Let us rise to the occasion, and take a chance on the first democratic socialist president so that we may never have to regret what we could have and should have done."

Waters-Smith is a dedicated Socialist. Alexander Burns isn't. But his story in the NY Times yesterday, Bernie Sanders vs. The Machine is one Bernie skeptics might want to read. Or just start by reading Burns' great Twitter storm.

Sanders learned quickly in Burlington that winning one election was not enough. He was regarded as a fluke, an interloper who could be blocked from implementing his agenda.

He responded by choosing confrontation rather than compromise.

Sanders's 1980s letters detail his political education-- and struggle to reconcile huge Ideas w/limited power.

“I have limitations as any mayor would, but I try to overcome these by expanding the role, by taking the job out of City Hall and into the streets where the people were.”

For Mayor Sanders, wielding power meant mobilizing disaffected people to vote in city elections, jolting turnout and ejecting entrenched Dems.

He reflects today: "What that tells me is that if government does respond to the needs of working people, they will come out and participate."

This is the approach Sanders wants to bring to the White House-- a presidency defined by grassroots mobilization along class lines and against legislative obstruction. He's talked about it with Barack Obama, who seems to have been skeptical.

This is the utterly repulsive alternative, that most of us have had way more than enough of. Just think about how well Status Quo Joe or Mayo Pete would fit right into this disgusting photograph. SMILE!