On ‘Our Revolution’

This book describes the extremely evil intentions of Bernie Sanders on their own honest terms: oppose Hillary Clinton because she is a successful woman, give money to racist white people only, and if Sanders can’t win then make sure Trump wins because fuck you.

It doesn’t actually say that at all, but a fair chunk of people are committed to believing that because it just makes sense to them — the Democratic National Committee are the goodest good guys imaginable, holding a monopoly power on moral truth and political savvy alike, and anyone who opposes them in an way just has to be consciously evil.

That approach didn’t exactly work out in 2016 when mainstream Democrats fired their old voters and tried to hire moderate Republicans instead, who just stayed home or wrote in Abraham Lincoln or whatever rather than vote for a candidate that they viscerally despised and who the media had led everyone to believe was a shoe-in for victory anyway.

If Bernie Sanders had only ever been after his own private political power then his defeat in the Democratic primary and the defeat of Democrats nationwide could have been good cause to close up shop, maybe literally sprinting into the woods like Hillary Clinton who is shirking her responsibilities in a belated attempt to relate to the damn millenials. Instead, though, he’s been as busy as ever in the weeks after the election, joining protests, getting a ton of television time, and also releasing this here book.

I’ll start with the book’s biggest weakness: when you frame your campaign as a David-v-Goliath situation, where your basic premise is that your actions swim against the modern stream of power, then it can be hard to admit to any tactical or moral errors and move forward. You didn’t do anything wrong, it was just literally impossible for good people to win. You weren’t strong enough because you just weren’t evil enough this time.

I’ve been wildly frustrated with mainstream Democrats framing their situation in a similar way, saying that everything in this country is already great and everybody already agrees with us and we lost due to exactly zero fault of our own. Of course, mainstream Democrats couldn’t frame themselves as standing up to the Powers That Be when they themselves are the Powers That Be, at least in their minds. You can’t rail against a corrupt institution when the only problem with it in your mind is that you aren’t at its helm.

So with that there’s very little in the book to surprise you if you’ve been following the election. What this book does do is simple: it reminds you that Bernie is still here, that he’s still fighting, and that there is still a way forward no matter how bleak things may seem. Bernie’s whole approach is to cast as wide a net as possible — you need to get involved in politics, because nobody is too unimportant to have skin in the game and a voice in the conversation.

Trump and his trolls love to hurt people; they enjoy causing pain in the people they perceive as weak and deserving of it. Resisting this pain is the first and most important line of resistance; facing the coming years with a clear heart and mind can be one of the most important acts of rebellion that there is.

This book helps you do that; if you feel disoriented and dismayed, picking up with Bernie and moving forward with your head held high is, to me, the best place to start.