IS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY BECOMING MORE PROGRESSIVE?

…The progressive, Bernie Sanders

 

Sanders’ presidential campaign is proving that the Progressives are here to stay.

 

The lesson from the almost win in Iowa for Bernie Sanders did send a special message to the political landscape.  But it’s a lesson that no one has wanted to admit within the current Democratic Party.  Even though all of the usually most accurate pollsters showed Hillary Clinton to be the favorite to win the Iowa Caucus, she only did actually “win” by the tiniest of margins.

 

The fact that Bernie Sanders campaign had record breaking rally sizes, three million contributions, a volunteer-based field campaign, and he rose from single digits in the polls to become a serious contender, this has shown one very clear result. That being that every single Democrat in the country needs to pay attention and take what happened in Iowa to heart. The lesson is this: A more progressive America is much more possible than you been led to believe.

 

This lesson is especially important for those voters, analysts, political professionals and elected Democrats who backed Hillary Clinton primarily because they view her as more electable.  And / or Hillary’s policies as having a more realistic chance of passing into law.

 

Bernie Sanders has shown that more progressive outcomes are possible because the grassroots activist power was unleashed and is now on the table.

 

Sanders outflanked all political possibility in this campaign. At the start of his campaign, no one at the top levels of the Democratic Party and the progressive advocacy thought he could come this far, absolutely no one. He did it by tapping into a deep reservoir of grassroots progressive activism, especially with the younger generation, that almost everyone has just flat out ignored.

 

There has never been a contested Democratic presidential primary where elected Democrats and leaders of progressive advocacy campaigns have so unanimously thrown their support behind one candidate.  And that candidate isn’t even a real Democrat.  The Independent Bernie Sanders has shown that his progressive grassroots organization is actually mounting a serious challenge to Hillary Clinton.

 

For years, the Democratic Party and many progressive advocacy organizations have relied on this same activist base for small donations, but they really haven’t taken it seriously until now.

 

This progressive group has worked well enough to raise a decent amount of campaign cash.  However, it had generated nowhere near the needed resources, both human and monetary, until Sanders unlocked it through his full-throated challenge to all of the nation’s moneyed interests.

 

For decades it was widely believed that this was not the way to go.  Instead, the Democrats thought they could get more done as a by accommodating all of Wall Street’s moneyed interests.  No one thought the right direction was to partner with the grassroots left-wing. Well today, it is starting to appear that it is time for all the Democrats to consider a recalculation.

 

Today, Bernie Sanders and his candidacy has shown that the liberal-conservative gap in America has never been smaller, and it is only going to keep getting smaller.

 

Today, the liberal grassroots organizations are better organized than ever and they are larger than ever.  They have managed to give Bernie Sanders as much support as Hillary’s supporters were able to give her.

 

But how long will all this last?  Only time will tell.  But even if Hillary still becomes the chosen nominee to go up against the GOP selection, the progressive group is not going away.

 

Bernie is asking for a progressive “Revolution”.  Well, as with most cultural and social changes, these changes do not occur overnight.  But Sanders has shown that whatever it is that is happening is not a one-time fluke.  Something big is in process, and as they say, “It’s not over til it’s over”.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2016