Take Aways From The #NotMeUs Campaign

Yesterday, writing for Politico Magazine, John Harris looked at two factors he says will determine how history looks at Bernie's #NotMeUs campaign. Harris, of course-- like the entire DC Establishment-- insists that Bernie tell his supporters NOT that Biden must be backed because he is the only alternative to Trump but that "a Biden presidency would be affirmatively good—a step, even if more tentative than Sanders would wish, toward advancing a transformative progressive agenda." Many thoughtful Bernie supporters will find this patently absurd, but Harris insists Bernie not just say it, but believe it! The second factor is even more important, he claims. He wrote that Bernie's "long-term reputation, however, will hinge even more on something he can’t dictate: What happens to the young activists who he energized with his cranky manner and democratic socialist agenda?"

Our Asia correspondent, emorejahongkong, a devoted Berniecrat, has a different perspective entirely and listed the lessons that should relearned from the #NotMeUs campaign:

First Lessons: How Numerous We Are; Hollowness of Dem Establishment Rhetoric; Experience In Senate/House Is Double-Edged Sword
-by emorejahongkong

First 3 Lessons of Bernie’s Presidential campaigns:

• We have learned how numerous we are

• ("we" being defined by me, preliminarily while inviting elaboration/discussion, as Americans whose policy preferences combine economic egalitarianism with social egalitarianism-- in varying instinctive and/or considered ways).
• Without Bernie’s two campaigns, we would not have known how many like-minded compatriots we actually have.
• This lesson can fortify us not only against Democratic establishment’s shaming and blaming, but also against the social Right’s blandishments.
• In California especially, where every voter now knows that most other voters prefer Bernie’s platform to that of every other major political figure, those figures will be ‘running scared’ for the next few elections.

• More people have seen the more-transparent hollowness of Democratic Establishment rhetoric

• Hillary 2016, for all of her off-putting qualities, did give political insiders a range of substantive reasons to support her (ranging from PMC women's "glass ceiling" issue to past and future patronage carrots and sticks).
• In contrast, Biden 2020’s only appeal to political insiders has always been "anybody but Bernie."
• This lesson will be further underlined if Democratic Party insiders replace Biden with a more vigorous and less-tainted frontperson (a replacement which most insiders know would improve their prospects of beating Trump).

• Experience in Senate/House etc. is even more double-edged sword than we thought

• Bernie’s Senate/House/Mayoral experience was the most distinctive thing about him as an individual (in comparison with the many people who share Bernie’s basic policy preferences).
• The upside of this experience was that Bernie obviously had exceptional traditional "qualifications" to campaign and to govern, but not obvious enough to deter or to destroy the establishment’s shameless memory-holing of Bernie’s qualifications.
• That left Bernie’s campaign with only the downside of this experience, most notably: Bernie’s inability to move past personal sentiments and Senate decorum even to take the mini-step of not disavowing belated publicizing, by Zephyr Teachout and David Sirota, of the no-brainer story of Biden’s "corruption problem."
• This lesson can help us select our next champion. For example, "Nina Turner never held state-wide or federal office" now can be seen as less of a bug and more of a feature.

Eva will champion Bernie's platform in Congress-- every single day

Eva Putzova, is the Flagstaff progressive and dedicated Berniecrat taking on reactionary Republican Tom O'Halleran, currently disguising himself, with the connivance of Nancy Pelosi & Team, as a Blue Dog Democrat. Wednesday evening, after Bernie's address, she wrote to her own followers. She began by reminiscing about how the #MotMeUs campaign began for her: "I first heard Senator Sanders speak in Phoenix in January 2012. In 2013, I asked a Democratic Party operative what he thought about me running for Congress. And he said-- what we women hear all the time-- that I should run for a lower office. So, I did. I was elected to the Flagstaff City Council in 2014. In June 2015, a group of people met in my living room and we started Flagstaff for Bernie. A rally with hand made signs followed. In early 2016, Senator Sanders came to Flagstaff and backstage I asked him to announce the launch of our local $15 minimum wage initiative-- and he did. Later that year, I became Bernie’s delegate at the DNC. While he didn’t win the 2016 nomination and our country was in shock that Trump became the President that November, here in Flagstaff we celebrated an important victory-- the local minimum wage initiative which was approved by voters because we believed in #NotMeUs."

So now that Bernie has dropped out, what next? "While this morning I nostalgically recalled my journey as it intersected with Bernie’s and am sad I won’t serve under his presidency, this afternoon I’m laser focused on the task at hand: to win this campaign so I can fight for universal healthcare, immigration overhaul, climate action, fully publicly funded college education, and for all marginalized people who deserve to live good lives with dignity. The end of Bernie’s campaign just means our work is that much more important. Now more than ever, we must elect more progressives in Congress to carry on our fight for a better future. This work doesn’t stop here. And we need warriors in DC who will do everything they can to bring real justice and equality to all. You know that saying “They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.” Well, that’s just it-- our campaign is one of those seeds planted by the movement Senator Sanders inspired. It’s a sad moment for many of us, but now is the time to push harder-- to water the seeds."

That Bernie Congress Blue America thermometer above will allow you-- if you choose to-- water those seeds-- campaigns of candidates, like Eva, running on Bernie's basic #NotMeUs platform. Please click on it and see if any of these candidates deserve $5 or $10 you may be able to spare now.