The Promise: A Letter to Bernie Sanders
Dear Bernie Sanders,
I am a volunteer who has been closely involved in the campaign in 6 states. This experience has provided me with the opportunity to meet some amazing people, both in my community and across the country who are committed to a movement for real change. It has also given me some insight into what this campaign means to the volunteers, the voters and the communities across America who are involved in it.
First, I want to thank you for what your campaign has done. It has shown that millions of people are ready for genuine change in this country. It has shown that if enough ordinary Americans get involved in the electoral process, they can make a real impact, move the conversation forward, and challenge the guard of the establishment.
What is clear is that this is not just a campaign, but a movement.
And as you’ve said, the movement is not just about Bernie Sanders.
It is about the many Americans who defer or abandon their pursuit of goals due to the cost of education. It is about the many Americans who postpone or avoid treatment due to the cost of healthcare. It is about the many Americans who are continually underemployed, under-compensated and overworked. It is about millions of Americans, their lives, their livelihoods, and the rights and opportunities that they would have if the current economic and political system functioned properly.
It is also about tens of thousands of campaign volunteers who are now dedicated to real change. It is about their enthusiasm, their activism, their overcoming of their cynicism and their willingness to participate and be active in the political process again. For other volunteers like me, it is about our becoming politically aware and active for the first time in our lives.
They say that for some reason your message does not appeal to older women. Well, let me say this. I was involved in the campaign effort in 6 states. In each and every state, the most steadfast supporters, the most committed and passionate supporters have been older women (and older people in general). They are the ones on the front lines. When I was phonebanking in a dimly-lit basement office in Ames, Iowa on the eve of the caucus, there were two other people calling as well, 2 dedicated seventy-something women. When I was making last minute calls out of Brooklyn headquarters on election day, the most enthusiastic caller in the group was a sixty-year old woman who also runs the national group Latinos 4 Bernie. Within our local group of Bernie supporters who meet every week, the most avid, active members are all older women. Obviously, there are many, many more poignant examples.
I share these examples to illustrate that this movement is not just involving young people. It is also providing a voice to those who have been active for a long time, who have fought tirelessly for important causes. These people truly understand the importance of this campaign and this movement. They understand that this campaign is a very rare thing. In many cases, it is what they have been hoping and fighting for throughout their lives. They see that this really is our chance. This is our time to finally begin to enact real meaningful policy that would benefit an overwhelming majority of Americans. But, it won’t happen without a fight. The people and institutions in power, including many in our own party, are set on keeping things the way they are. Indeed, this is a movement, but it is also a moment. A moment that must be seized. We must continue the struggle right now.
Before the primary, the perspective was different. It seemed necessary to work with the Democratic establishment. It seemed necessary to campaign as a Democrat, even as the party leadership installed barrier after barrier to the campaign. Even as many of your colleagues decided rather boldly and before their own constituents even voted that they would support your opponent. It seemed necessary because that’s the way the electoral process seemed to work: go through the primary, and after free and fair elections, the candidate who receives the will of the majority of the voters wins the nomination.
Everything is different in hindsight and we can all agree that this primary has been far from fair and equal to both candidates. What with the super delegates, the debate schedule, the mainstream media coverage, the DNC, it is clear there was a preferred candidate from the start. So now, as party officials call for party unity, as they pat you on the back and say “good try, Bernie, but it’s time to call it a day and work for what’s best for the party,” a fair reaction would be, “thanks, but no thanks.”
The only thing the party leadership did for the campaign was allow it to play in the primary game. And, what a rigged game it was. If this were baseball, they pitched screaming 99 mph fastballs to you, while lobbing softballs to your opponent. If this were basketball, they gave you a modified 20ft hoop, while giving a Fisher Price one to your opponent. Many articles even from mainstream outlets recognize that there was a completely different set of rules applied to your campaign. Evidence released recently point to outright coordination (or collusion) between the Hillary camp and the DNC to orchestrate her nomination. And this isn’t taking into account the incredible barriers your campaign staff faced on a daily basis when trying to coordinate with the party.
The party leadership likes to speak loudly about party unity. But it’s clear that unity to them essentially means falling in line behind the establishment. Which begs the question: whose party are we talking about? Certainly, the democratic establishment don’t represent the majority of Americans, or the middle and working classes, or the legacy of FDR’s party. They run the party; but as we have seen, it is a very exclusive one that requires high fees to get in the door. And it’s been that way for a long time.
At this point, the Democratic Party establishment is hiding behind the Democratic brand while pursuing staunchly timid policy in lieu of real action. There are speeches and platforms made to cater to and mollify its constituents, but the party leadership has been straying from democratic principles for many years. They do not represent the will of their constituents or ordinary Americans. Just as important, they do not act as though they are accountable to us. As Harry Belafonte said a decade ago, “as I look at the wreckage of the Democratic party, I wonder whether there’s anything worth salvaging.” Indeed, it’s label is still the “Democratic” party, but there’s nothing democratic about it at the moment. The people whom it deigns to represent play no role within it.
The current state of our politics and our party is precisely why this campaign and this movement is so significant. Because we are representing the American people and are accountable to them. We, the movement, are the Democrats. We are the advocates for the injustices in the system, the underrepresented, the poor, and all of those without a voice in our current political morass. It is we who are standing up for working class values, economic and social justice. We are standing up and standing for real change. Meanwhile, the party leadership is doing all it can to stifle our voices and efforts. How does it make sense to endorse the candidate who represents this entrenched party elite?
The following statement may ruffle some feathers, but there are many indications that it is true:
Our democratic opponent is the quintessential example of nearly everything that our movement is trying to change.
She accepts money from large, anonymous donors. She surrounds herself with lobbyists representing every reprehensible industry on the planet. She changes her mind or lacks conviction on the most important issues depending solely on political expediency. She promotes trade policy that dramatically weakens our middle and working classes. She embraces a foreign policy that ignores consequences to our country as well as to the people of the countries we engage.
The workers of America have witnessed the impact of these policies. The people of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Honduras, Haiti and others have felt the impacts of these policies. The outcomes have been across-the-board disastrous.
Knowing this, are there any indications that endorsing your opponent and in turn these policies will be a move forward for this movement or the millions of Americans seeking concrete political change?
The only possible argument for why to endorse your opponent is the candidacy of Donald Trump.
This is a broken argument for 2 big reasons: the American people and real change. You began this campaign because of your deep faith in the American people. The success of your campaign is a resounding model of how powerful that faith can be. When you renounced corporate money, you trusted that regular Americans would step up and support the campaign. We did. When you proclaimed that this was a campaign by and for the people, you trusted that we would support you through our coordinated grassroots efforts. We did. When the media and the party leadership stifled your campaign with unfair treatment, you trusted us to continue the fight. We did, every step of the way. And we still do. Which is why it makes very little sense to lose faith in the American people now.
To believe that the American people would elect a man whose campaign thrives on hateful statements is to have little faith in us. To put another way, your trust in us has gotten the campaign this far. We ask that you maintain that trust through the convention and beyond.
Trump is a character that appeals to a subset of Americans, but no more. This is not to say that Trump supporters do not have valid reasons for supporting him. They do. But the overwhelming majority of Americans will never be convinced that those reasons are sufficient to support his outrageous character and divisive campaign. Yes, Hillary Clinton is polling close to Trump, but that is as much a condemnation of her character as his.
Which leads us to the second reason: real change. This campaign has been about bold leadership and real change from the start. At this point in history, America and the world cannot afford to support leaders who hesitate to fight for real change. The crises facing us right now demand bold action and thus strong leadership as a bare necessity. Endorsing your opponent is an endorsement of the current establishment and thus current policy. It will not lead to any of the meaningful changes that are required to make our country or the world more equitable, habitable and safe.
Whether you’d want to admit it or not, you have an incredible amount of power right now. That’s why the mainstream media continues to speculate on your candidacy. That’s why the party leadership is happy to meet with you. That’s why the Hillary camp is courting your endorsement.
The establishment is very aware of this power. And right now, they are hoping and praying that you endorse for “the good of the party”. They know that if you endorse, you will be relinquishing much of that power.
And what is being proffered in return for that power? Changes or revisions to the party platform is not nearly enough. In fact, it’s a pittance. After the platform is drafted, it will cease to have any influence over party members, just as previous platforms had little to none over past officials.
There are many incredible ways to use the power your campaign has achieved. It could be wielded to build the movement beyond the campaign. There are millions of wonderful people across this country who are willing to fight for progressive changes, but they need direction. They need leadership and infrastructure. Right now, you, Bernie Sanders, have taken on the leadership role and if you relinquish this role, the movement will be obligated to find new leadership.
At this moment though, you are a powerful leader for this movement for real change. Let’s keep it that way. Let’s fight through the convention and beyond. Even if you wind down the campaign afterwards, the statement will have been made. We will not endorse status quo politics. We will fight for real change. The struggle continues on.
Lastly, yes, it is true that you made a promise to the party leadership. But you also made a promise to your supporters and the American people: your campaign has always been about thinking outside the box and being committed to fighting for the real issues. And you kept that promise throughout the primary season. While the party leadership made it as hard as possible for your campaign to achieve any success, we the people, fought as hard as possible for it to succeed as well as it did. Well, Senator Sanders, the ball’s in your court now. Which way forward best represents the future that you believe in? The promise of America is pending.