Two Metaphors for the Sanders Campaign, and a Song

Gas bubbles collect on the inside surface of a glass, and when they grow large enough, rise up (source)

by Gaius Publius

I've been using two metaphors to describe the movement around the Bernie Sanders campaign. One is the grain of sand in the oyster that allows the pearl material, always present, to coalesce, come together. The sand didn't create the pearl. It just "occasioned" it. Bernie Sanders didn't create the movement around him. He "occasioned" it.

The other is less intuitive, but much the same. When you have a gas dissolved in a liquid (CO₂ in water, or coke, or whatever), and the mixture is in a glass, it's easy to observe that streams of small bubbles seem to rise constantly from the same point on the inside of the glass. Why is that?

Nearly invisible imperfections in the glass itself, little places where the glass material isn't perfectly smooth but almost microscopically sharp, are places where the dissolved CO₂ "collects," reforms as a gas, and rises — again and again. (Thank you, high school chemistry.)

Bernie Sanders is that place on the inside of the glass. The dissolved CO₂ was always present — it's all of us and our great discontent. Sanders just gives us a place to collect, reform, and (yes) rise up.

"Jeunesse, lève-toi"

One of my favorite songs about rising up is this one — in French, "Jeunesse, lève-toi," in English, "Young people, rise up." Note that the verb se lever (lit., "raise oneself") has a number of meanings, and all of them are intended. It's used for an uprising, a sunrise, for getting up off the ground, for getting out of bed in the morning, and more. The singer, Damien Saëz, is saying all of these things. Youth, get up. Youth, arise.

It's not just a song of rebellion, which Saëz also sings about. It's a song of impossible sadness as well, and a song of anger. It's about rising up to confront and face the hurt of life itself.

It's also impossibly beautiful. Listen. You only need to know the meaning of the title — Jeunesse, lève-toi, "Youth, get up" — to feel the impact of it.

Damien Saez - Jeunesse Lève-Toi (Live "Ce Soir Ou Jamais" France 3 10-06-2008)

French lyrics at the "See More" link. A taste in English (my rough translation):

Like a burst of laugh that comes,
Comes to console sadness,
Like a puff of breath that comes
To reignite the ember,
Like a whiff of sulfur gas
That gives rise to the flame,
Youth, rise up.

Against the life that comes, that goes, and
Then just gets extinguished,
Against the love we take, we hold, but
Never stays beside us,
Against the trace that gets erased
Behind us as we walk,
Youth, rise up.
...
Don't you hear this evening sung
The song of all the dead?
Don't you see at your fingertips
The heaven overhead?
Youth, rise up.

Youth, get up.

Youth, rise up.

Saëz is heir to the great French singer-songwriter tradition, le chanteur, la chanteuse, heir to Charles Trenet, Jacques Brel and Leo Ferré (think Bob Dylan, Rickie Lee Jones, Tom Waits), and he's one of the best, in my opinion.

Back to Sanders. We can't rise up when we're in the ground, and the country in it with us. The time to rise up is now.

GP
 

Morning Joe: "That campaign's not over. That campaign continues."

.@JoeNBC on @BernieSanders campaign: That campaign's not over. That campaign continues. https://t.co/eyUCCYbFxb

— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) April 27, 2016

by Gaius Publius

Short and sweet. Play the video above (be sure to unmute the sound and ignore the framing in the crawl), then listen to the great point made by Joe Scarborough after the Sanders portion. Scarborough contrasts the end of most campaigns with this phase of the Sanders campaign. Most campaigns die a quiet death in a little room surrounded by friends.

Not this one. Scarborough recognizes the signs. This campaign continues:

"Do you remember the final scene from Marco Rubio's campaign, sort of a sad moment where they had to fill half of an atrium and it was mainly friends — that's how most campaigns end, sort of with a whimper.

(Pointing) "That campaign's not over. That campaign continues. And Hillary Clinton's people need to understand, those people last night knew things weren't going great, and [yet] they were out there screaming and yelling and fighting.

"And they're going to keep screaming and yelling, and they're going to keep fighting, and they're going to take it to the Democratic convention..."

And it won't be because of Sanders that the fight still continues. It will be yours, because you understand that the hour of resistance is now.

My favorite song about resistance:

  Damien Saëz performs "Fils de France" in concert at the Zénith in Paris, 12 November 2002.

A taste of the translated lyrics:

We are, we are ... the land of the Rights of Man
We are, we are ... the land of Tolerance
We are, we are ... the land of the Enlightenment
We are, we are ... at the hour of the Résistance

French lyrics in this version, but really, just enjoy the power and the sweetness of the song.

À la résistance,

GP