Progressive Democrats of America Bring Movement Pressure to Dems Through Bernie Sanders Campaign

[marmar]

from In These Times:



Progressive Democrats of America Bring Movement Pressure to Dems Through Bernie Sanders Campaign
Thanks to social media campaigns and behind-the-scenes work from the Progressive Democrats of America, Sanders’ chances at president have become a reality.

BY THEO ANDERSON


In late April, when he announced that he would enter the presidential race, Bernie Sanders was the relatively unknown junior U.S. Senator from Vermont. Now he’s everywhere.

Though the “Sanders surge” seemed to come from nowhere, it was long in the making. Sanders’ rapid rise in the polls, and his increasing visibility over the past few weeks, are in part the result of behind-the-scenes work by organizations like Progressive Democrats of America (PDA).

PDA was founded in 2004 by progressives at the Democratic National Convention who were disappointed with the party’s presidential nominee, John Kerry, but were unwilling to give up on electoral politics. One evening, at the convention’s conclusion, about 200 people met to chart a path forward.

“PDA was founded that night with an inside-outside strategy—to bring outside energy inside the party,” said Conor Boylan, who began working for PDA in 2009 and has been its co-director since 2014. “It was almost an insurgency: We’ll be members of the party, but we’ll also form our own chapters and hold the party accountable.”

.....(snip).....

What happens if Bernie is not the candidate? What does PDA’s role become?

We’re not going to endorse Hillary—that’s the reality. We took a poll of our membership, and there just isn’t the energy there to endorse her. So we’ll switch gears, and the issues that Bernie has pushed, we want to continue to move those issues and build a movement, continue to build a movement. ......................(more)

http://inthesetimes.com/article/18181/sanders-surge-shows-that-the-underdog-has-a-chance

[peacebird]

1. Love It!

[PatrickforO]

2. This is interesting. How does the mood of a people change?

You know, we talk about memes, ideas that spread from person to person in a society, but lately they've come to just mean ideas that have 'gone viral.'

However, throughout history ideas have arose at the time when they are needed, and many times have risen independently; a person on the west coast will think of something and within hours someone on the east coast will think of the same thing. I'm not sure what the term is for such ideas, or even if a descriptive term exists, but I am sure of one thing.

Lots of people have decided they are fed up with the way things are. Maybe they read something, but maybe they just independently decided we've got to have something better.

I remember a few months ago when Bernie Sanders was talking about running for president. It seemed to me at the time that this visceral discontent among a huge number of Americans was lifting him up, almost as if the discontent had a life of its own.

Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree here, but it seems to me that people all over this country have gotten fed up and Bernie was just there because we needed someone singular to lift up on the crest of the discontent. So here's 200 people who decided to push some issues and not endorse Hillary, but there are tens of millions more Americans that seem to me to have made this decision simultaneously.

[Jefferson23]

3. Happy to recommend.