Matt Taibbi interviews Bernie Sanders in the new Rolling Stone. They talk about a lot of stuff but Bernie's most crucial message here is about doing politics in a way that connects with rather than manipulates people. What that means first and foremost is talking to voters instead of to donors.
President Obama talked after the election about winning Iowa by
going into counties even if the demographics didn't "dictate" success
there. This seemed to be a criticism that the party had decided to
ignore big parts of the country.
I talked about that in the book.
That's exactly what we did. We had 101 rallies in that small state.
That's grassroots democracy. You speak to three-quarters of the people
who end up voting for you. In New Hampshire, we had just a zillion
meetings – far more people came out to our meetings. If you had the time
to do that around the country, the world becomes different. The
assessment has got to be that not only did we lose the White House to
the least-popular candidate in perhaps the history of America, certainly
in modern history, but we've lost the Senate, we've lost the House,
we've lost two-thirds of the governors' chairs in this country. We've
lost 900 seats in state legislatures throughout the country in the last
eight years. Maybe it might be time to reassess?
Is there any way to read that except as a massive repudiation of Democrats?
No.
I can't see how any objective person can. It speaks to what I just
mentioned; we cannot spend our entire life – I didn't, but others do –
raising money from wealthy people, listening to their needs. We've got
to be out in union halls, we've got to be out in veterans' halls, and
we've got to be talking to working people, and we've got to stand up and
fight for them.
Go outside. Talk to people. Stop relying on corporate media infrastructure and Big Data to deliver a finely tailored message to a neatly carved out set of demographic cohorts. Do something real. Or, if you are Donald Trump, at least appear to do that which is the next best thing.
With Trump, was there a moment during the past year when you went
from thinking "This is a joke" to "This is real!" Or did you realize
right away that it was serious?
I didn't realize right away. I
didn't know much about him. What I believed and he believed is that the
central part of your campaign should be rallies. Why is that? Because
it's not only the ability to communicate with large numbers of people
and get media attention as a result of that, but when 20,000 people sit
in an arena or stadium and they look around and they say, "We're all on
the same team together," that creates a kind of energy.
He
understood that. When I started seeing him bring these large turnouts of
working-class people, I knew that that was real, you know? What
politics passes for now is somebody goes on Meet the Press and they do
well: "Oh, this guy is brilliant, wonderful." No one cares about Meet
the Press. But that you can go out and bring out many, many thousands of
people who are supporting your campaign – that is real stuff. When I
began to see that, I said, "This guy is a real candidate." Who could do
it? Jeb Bush couldn't do that. Marco Rubio couldn't do it. [Trump] was
clearly striking a nerve and a chord that other candidates weren't.
So did you, though.
That is absolutely right. Surely did.
What is going on
in your neighborhood? What is
going on in your city? Are your concerns being met? Are your problems being addressed? If the answer is no, then
what can you do about it?
Sharika Evans grew up working in fast food. But, she said, the minimum
wages she's received — at $7.25 an hour — are not enough to support a
family, her health care, utilities and her bills, Evans said she was
fired from the McDonald's on Canal Street following a Fight For $15
protest at the restaurant earlier this year. She held the doors open to
protesters.
Around 5 p.m. Nov. 29, more than 100 service workers and supporters
marched, with a brass band, from Armstrong Park on Rampart Street to
Canal Street near the McDonald's between Royal and Bourbon streets.
Protesters blocked car and streetcar traffic in all directions for
nearly an hour and linked arms, demanding $15 an hour and the ability to
unionize. Six people sitting at the intersection were arrested but
released with citations for obstructing street traffic.
"The pay we get doesn't reflect the work we put into it," Evans told Gambit.
Wanda, a Walmart employee, told a growing crowd at Armstrong Park that
"people shouldn't have to be poor so other people can be rich."
Co-organized by Service Employees International Union, a national Fight
For $15 movement launched in 2012 as dozens of fast food workers staged
walk outs across New York City, and actions have spread throughout the
U.S., with large protests and rallies (and arrests) on Nov. 29. The
movement made significant strides helping service workers in hospitals
and schools earn higher wages through collective bargaining. But in
2016, following the election of president-elect Donald Trump, the Fight For $15 prepares for the undoing of labor agreements that would likely prevent fast food workers from organizing.
Maybe that's an uphill battle. But it always is. And maybe the eventual result is ultimately
as uninspiring as Atrios describes here. I think it probably is. But what else is there to do?
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