An Endorsement So Profound That The Democratic Primary Should Now Be Over

Early this morning Varshini Prakash and Evan Weber, respectively the , executive director and political director of the Sunrise Movement, sent out an e-mail to their massive mailing list that shouldn't have really surprised anyone:

In the summer of 2017 we launched Sunrise Movement to create a political home for young people in the United States who are scared about what climate change means for our future. We’ve grown from just eight founders to over 300 local chapters nationwide and shifted climate change from a backburner issue to the top of the nation’s consciousness. Still, we are just ordinary young people who are choosing every day to demand the world we need and fight for it.

Today, at the conclusion of our 6-week long, three-phase democratic Presidential Endorsement Process, we are announcing another choice. It is with immense pride that we get to share with you that, with 76% of voting members selecting him as their first choice,  Sunrise Movement members have voted resoundingly to endorse Senator Bernie Sanders for President of the United States... Read about it in the New York Times here.

We know that no matter who the next President is, we will need to turn millions of people into the streets and disrupt business as usual in order to win a Green New Deal. But our movement has spoken clearly. We believe a Bernie Sanders Presidency would provide the best political terrain in which to engage in and ultimately win that struggle for the world we deserve. Bernie Sanders has made it clear throughout his political career and in this campaign that he grasps the scale of the climate crisis, the urgency with which we must act to address it, and the opportunity we have in coming together to do so. Our generation’s future and the future of human civilization as we know it depend on the next President doing everything in their power to mobilize the resources of the federal government towards achieving a stable climate. Should Senator Sanders become the next President of the United States, we will push to ensure that he make delivering upon the promise of his Green New Deal platform the top priority of his administration.

A Green New Deal can only be achieved by building and sustaining a movement of millions of people of all walks of life from all corners of the country-- of many colors and creeds, from the plains, mountains, and coasts-- who are willing to struggle, sacrifice, and turn out into the streets and at the ballot box to fight for the world we deserve. This is why the slogan of the Bernie Sanders campaign is, “Not Me, Us.” Today, we are endorsing Bernie Sanders for President, but more than that, we are endorsing that movement-- the political revolution-- that we know is necessary to win a Green New Deal. In endorsing, we are also inviting every single person out there who cares about the future of our planet and our democracy to join us in building the movement for the decade of the Green New Deal.

Our endorsement of Senator Sanders should be interpreted as an affirmation of his campaign and the movement it represents, not as an indictment of other campaigns or candidates. In particular, we’d like to acknowledge and praise the campaign of Senator Elizabeth Warren who, at 17.4% of the vote, was the only other candidate to receive greater than a few handfuls of votes from our members. Senator Warren made the Green New Deal an early centerpiece of her campaign, has forcefully gone after Big Oil corruption as one of the leading plagues of our democracy, and worked with us and others in the broader movement for climate and environmental justice to roll out over a dozen detailed climate policies. Her plans are some of the most thoughtful we have seen to date, and she makes it clear she knows that the Green New Deal is a governing lens, not just a singular piece of legislation. We’re grateful for her partnership with our movement and look forward to continuing to work together to win a Green New Deal and raise the political urgency of addressing the climate crisis.

While we believe that Senator Sanders is the best Presidential candidate to fight alongside us for a Green New Deal at this time, the movement for a Green New Deal is bigger than any one candidate. As is stated in our political principles, “No permanent friends, no permanent enemies.” We do not believe in political saviors. No one will save us from the climate crisis but ourselves. We’ll continue to push and critique everyone to live up to the policy positions and political action necessary for a just and livable future, including Bernie. The stakes of the climate crisis demand it.

We wholeheartedly believe that Bernie can win the nomination, defeat Donald Trump in November, and usher in down-ballot victories that will help jump-start the political revolution. But if he doesn’t, the stakes of the climate crisis also demand that we can’t sit this election out. No matter what, we will be steadfast in advocating for the defeat of President Trump and his fossil fuel cronies at the ballot box on November 3rd, 2020. The defeat of President Trump in 2020 is an absolute necessity towards having a shot of the federal government taking any degree of action on the climate crisis and protecting the people and places we love. That’s why we need everyone to join us in 2020 to build the biggest, most existential movement that our nation has ever seen.

Seeing millions of young people get involved in politics for the first time when Bernie ran in 2016 helped us and a few friends believe that a political movement for young people terrified about the climate crisis was possible, and inspired us to launch what became Sunrise Movement. We’re inspired again by the movement that continues with the Bernie Sanders campaign now, and honored to be joining forces.

I said the endorsement shouldn't have surprised anyone because the group had rated Bernie's plan Climate plan so highly (as they did Elizabeth's plan). But there was way more to it than that-- and very transparent and member driven. The threshold for endorsement was high so there were some observers that said the 300 local chapters wouldn't be able to endorse anyone. But Bernie won 76% of the votes (Elizabeth came in second with 17.4%. Next came "no preference" (1.85%), Mayo Pete (1.16%) and Andrew Yang (1.02%). Climate Crisis deniers like Status Quo Joe, Bloomberg and Amy Klobuchar were not expected to be competitive in the balloting.

At around the same time of the Sunrise announcement, Mayo Pete announced he finally found a black person to endorse him. Anthony Brown is an unsavoury Maryland New Dem with a right-of-center voting record ("D" from ProgressivePunch), representing the district progressive icon Donna Edwards used to represent. It's the bluest district in the state-- D+28-- but his voting record doesn't reflect that in any way, shape or form. The only thing that surprised anyone about Brown's endorsement of Mayo is that he didn't endorse Status Quo Joe or sell himself to Bloomberg. 

Biden's list of endorsements looks like a list of the worst, most Republican-like Democrats in Congress, mostly reactionary Blue Dogs and New Dems. Looking at the support he gets from arch-conservatives like Charlie Crist (ex-Republican Blue Dog-FL), Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR), Filemon Vela (Blue Dog-TX), Ami Bera (New Dem-CA-- still not in prison because he made his elderly father take the rap for him), crook and child molester Tony Cárdenas (New Dem-CA), Lou Correa (Blue Dog-CA), anti-healthcare fanatic Stephen Lynch (New Dem-MA), Vicente Gonzalez (Blue Dog-TX), Elaine Luria (New Dem-VA), Chrissy Houlahan (New Dem-PA)... as well as a plethora of slime bag former congress members like uber-corrupt lobbyist Al Wynn (MD), gas and oil whore Gene Green (TX), Lieberman-like Richard Swett (NH), Gwen Graham (Blue Dog-FL), Rahmish Shelley Berkley (New Dem-NV)... makes you even surer that he's the wrong guy for the Democratic Party-- and for America. Compare that the the Sunrise Movement.