Todd Gitlin, NYT: The Bernie Sanders Moment

[eridani]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/opinion/sunday/the-bernie-sanders-moment.html?_r=0

In the late 1960s and early ’70s, the headlines about the New Left went to the tiny minority who planted bombs and burned down R.O.T.C. buildings to stop the Vietnam War and usher in a phantasmagorical “revolution.” Far more numerous, however, though less photogenic, were the activists who resolved, in the words of a Students for a Democratic Society document written in 1965, to convert the antiwar movement “from protest to radical politics,” by which they meant to develop “independent and mass constituencies” out of “the immediate aspirations of the poor, welfare recipients, trade-unionists, students, and others.”

One co-author of that proposal, Lee Webb, moved to Vermont in 1970 and, like many other immigrants to what had been a rock-ribbed Republican state, threw himself into antiwar organizing there. Mr. Webb was a veteran of the student movement (he was national secretary of S.D.S. the same year I was president, 1963-64). In Vermont, he ran into another immigrant, originally from Brooklyn, a civil rights activist at the University of Chicago who had bought some land and moved there several years before. The man, who carried his young son on his shoulder, was Bernie Sanders. “Bernie didn’t own a car,” Mr. Webb remembers. When he did, it was often out of commission.

Vermont welcomed not only hippie communards but also veterans of the antiwar and feminist movements, looking for a continuation of radical politics by other means and smaller-scale lives. Mr. Sanders got involved with the tiny Liberty Union Party.

“Bernie,” Mr. Webb told Mr. Sanders, “you’re never gonna get anywhere in politics if you don’t join the Democratic Party.”

[merrily]

1. The Sanders moment is about Bernie in the 1960s? I disagree.

Way too many articles like this, IMO, and no tenough about his accomplishments since he

ran for Mayor of Burlington without money or the backing of either party and won repeatedly,

ran for the House without money or the backing of either party and won repeatedly,

ran for the Senate without money or the backing of either party and won repeatedly and

began running for the Democratic nomination against a tsunami of money and backing from the Democratic Party or snarky establishment media, and resonated with people of both major parties, as well as members of third parties and Indies.



He was elected Mayor of Vermont's capital again and again. How much have we seen written about why the people of Burlington voted for an Indie again and again, even when Democratic Party and the Republican Party held hands to back a single candidate against Bernie?

He was elected a member of the House, again and again, despite opposition from both Republicans and Democrats.

How much have we read (outside DU) about that or about his founding of the House Progressive Caucus as soon as he arrived and chairing for its first 8 years? About growing it into the largest caucus in Congress, outside the Republican caucus and the Democratic caucus?

About being the ONLY Senator who ever belonged, and still does, to a progressive caucus, as opposed to a New Democrat caucus or a Blue Dog caucus or no non-party caucus at all?

How much have we read (outside DU) about the large number of amendments he got passed as in Indie?

How much have we read (outside DU) about how, out of respect, he would not run for the Senate until his predecessor retired?

How he has been on the right side of history on every important vote from DOMA to repeal of Glass Steagall to the Iraq War and beyond?

How he is one of the few people in Congress who is not a multi-millionaire or beholden to any special interest?

Etc.

ETA: Note also the ending of this piece.

However unpromising his prospects for electoral victory, Mr. Sanders’s campaign is already a force. His supporters may not be happy with the Democratic candidate they will probably get, but their influence will persist.

It's the standard line coming from all the usual suspects who are almost, to a person, supporting Hillary: SANDERS WILL LOSE, but lucky us, he'll make Hillary a better candidate. And the inevitable comparison to someone who generated enthusiasm early on, but didn't make it, like Howard Dean.

I am very leery of pieces like this.


See also: "The New York Times slimes Bernie Sanders: This is what a smiling, condescending hit piece looks like."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251428155

[eridani]

2. We need the historical record in this group too, IMO

You make a very good point for an LTE, though.

[merrily]

3. No reflection on you or your post, eridani. I really appreciate all you do for this group.

My comment is about how the media covers him--and how it does not.

If there were tons of articles since his many accomplishments since he started winning elections and performing public service, in Burlington, the House and the Senate, you and others would be posting them.

[daleanime]

5. Nailed it.

[Wilms]

4. ^