Bernie Sanders\u2019 presidential campaign resonated with Democratic voters in a rare way. While he did not achieve the success of Barack Obama\u2019s electrifying 2008 election, his campaign helped create a spontaneous movement of support. Certainly, I saw it among my students who overwhelmingly favored Sanders and felt about him much like I had about Obama.<\/p>\n
But spontaneous happenings only achieve long-term success if they institutionalize themselves and evolve into something more than what was once known as a happening in the 1960s. The Sanders movement has done that as the Sanders\u2019 call for \u201ca revolution\u201d has evolved into the decidedly non-revolutionary organization called Our Revolution.<\/p>\n
Our Revolution Maryland\u2019s (ORM) approach in this election is emblematic of this new highly institutionalized, even establishment, approach. The campaign by Ben Jealous, a co-chair of Sanders\u2019 2016 bid, has all the spontaneity of your average Brezhnev-era central committee meeting. The contrast with the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign could hardly be greater.<\/p>\n
While Sanders supporters bitterly objected to what they viewed as the Democratic National Committee\u2019s tilt in favor of Hillary Clinton, that has nothing on ORM\u2019s \u201cprocess\u201d for endorsing a gubernatorial nominee. Before the official process even began, Jealous told other candidates in no uncertain terms that ORM and Sanders\u2019 organization would back him.<\/p>\n
Prior to the launch of ORM\u2019s kabuki endorsement process, ORM\u2019s Director appeared right behind Jealous at the announcement of his gubernatorial campaign. Unsurprisingly, no other gubernatorial candidate agreed to participate in ORM\u2019s endorsement charade because they didn\u2019t want to validate a pre-determined outcome.<\/p>\n
The Jealous campaign has been no less establishment. Its pollster, for example, is Fred Yang. He\u2019s a deservedly well-respected Washington Democratic pollster. Yang has also worked on campaigns for numerous other mainstream Democratic candidates and issues, such as the Maryland marriage equality referendum in 2012.<\/p>\n
Jealous\u2019 running mate, Susie Turnbull, has held no elective office but she practically defines the term \u201cinsider\u201d as a wealthy and connected former Maryland Democratic Party Chair \u2013 and not a renegade choice for that position. Turnbull has also long been very active in national DNC politics. Hardly the choice of a self-proclaimed revolutionary running to take down the Democratic establishment.<\/p>\n
ORM has also made the highly strategic choice to avoid endorsing in the U.S. Senate campaign in order to support Jealous. Most mainstream Democrats regard U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin as a great guy but the more overtly hardline progressives are not happy, especially about Cardin\u2019s unflinching support for Israel. ORM didn\u2019t endorse either of Cardin\u2019s more left-wing primary challengers as part of an effort to keep the influential Cardin out of the gubernatorial race.<\/p>\n
As it turns out, the vaunted vanguard of the progressive revolution is not so different from the mainstream Democratic Party. Jealous hires the same political people, has an establishment running mate and received the pre-determined support of a political organization that, in turn, has tactically decided not to endorse other progressive candidates to help out Jealous.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not surprising that Jealous would take this route. The NAACP remains the grand old dame and most established of African-American organizations. Moreover, the reason smart candidates don\u2019t expect their campaign to be spontaneous electrifying happenings is that approach generally doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n
Just don\u2019t expect much revolutionary out of Our Revolution or its candidate. Jealous decries half-measures and enjoys citing his grandmother\u2019s wisdom that if you only fix half of a problem, you still have a problem. But, if elected, you should still expect lots of compromises, a hallmark of the American political system, or not much to happen at all. The revolutionary rhetoric cannot really mask a non-revolutionary approach.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s all to the good, as revolution is vastly overrated and most don\u2019t turn out nearly as well as the American version.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bernie Sanders\u2019 presidential campaign resonated with Democratic voters in a rare way. While he did not achieve the success of Barack Obama\u2019s electrifying 2008 election, his campaign helped create a spontaneous movement of support. Certainly, I saw it among my students who overwhelmingly favored Sanders and felt about him much like I had about Obama. … Continue reading Our Revolution is Neither<\/span>