Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

by

Michael Kendall

MEMORANDUM

TO:  All Millennials and Other Bernie Supporters

FROM:  A Baby Boomer Bernie Supporter

SUBJECT:  Getting Power in a Democratic Election    

DATE:  Sunday, 21 February 2016, the Day After the Nevada Caucus

Today is my wedding anniversary date.  And although my wife and I are Democratic Socialists, we’re in our 60’s (as opposed to “in the Sixties…”) and we intend to exercise our “Convivial Rights” today over wine, gin, and tonic!  So tempus fugit; and I’ll get right to the point. 

Yesterday we lost a close race in Nevada we thought we might win.  Today is a good time to reflect on how we got this far and where we go from here.  Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our campaign and Lifetimes. Tomorrow is when we finish what we started and win the future for our Lifetimes.  In the words of that philosopher-king, Yogi Berra, “It ain’t over until it’s over.” 

Bernie and Your revolutionary Movement have won and are winning.  Nevada is a bump.  More bumps are coming before victory. But we have the Ideas, People, and Money needed to win. No one else has the Ideas and People.    

The Ideas of the Oligarchs, Conservatives, and Liberal Capitalists have turned our America into the Land for the One Percent. (FYI:  A “Liberal Capitalist” is a quasi-liberal in good times, a moderate in bad times, tells you what he or she thinks you want to hear, does something else if it suits him or her, and believes more and better welfare is a palatable, compromise, substitute for economic equality.)  Democratic Socialism is the Idea whose time has come and is attracting the People and the Money which reflects that fact. 

Now is the time to double down on Your future.  Understand how strong You are and how the Movement got to this point.  Ideas, People, and Money are the ingredients and any two are enough to make the smell of victory.

In 1968 California Democratic House Speaker, Jesse Unruh, supporter of Robert F. Kennedy, and proponent of the mass-based political ideas of the New Left, summarized the three forces at play in a democratic election.  You need at least two of the three to win and you need at least one to start and get at least one of the other two.  The three forces are:  (1) Ideas; (2) People; and (3) Money.  Bernie started with the first, which attracted the second, and led to the third.  He and the Movement now have all three and that is why we are winning, and not waning.

IDEAS:  First, You are winning the revolution for the battle of Ideas.  Conservatism is dying and Liberalism has failed to regain the throne.  You, Bernie, and the Movement have made Social Democrat and Democratic Socialism more respectable identifiers than Liberalism and Liberal Capitalist.  The political debate in America will never be the same and neither will the Democratic Party.  From 1912 to 1968 the Idea of Liberalism became the dominant philosophy and prevailing language of America.  Liberal philosophy dominated political thought, policy, and speech. From 1968 until Occupy Wall Street, the Idea of Conservatism replaced Liberalism to become the dominant philosophy and prevailing language of America.   After 1972, Conservative philosophy replaced Liberalism, and was enshrined by Reagan in 1980. Neither is dominant now because they have failed the People and America.  You are winning the battle of ideas because you have established Democratic Socialism as the Idea whose time has come to dominate political thought, policy, and speech.  That is why you have the People and Money needed to bring about Your democratic, socialist, revolution now.  Carpe Diem. 

PEOPLE:  Second, You are winning the battle for the People.  Nevada, and perhaps South Carolina, notwithstanding, 50% of the voters in Iowa, 64% of voters in New Hampshire, and 48% of the voters in Nevada felt the Bern.  A majority of voters polled now favor Bernie over Hillary and over any potential Republican opponent.  The electoral battle will go back and forth to the end. Super Tuesday, California, New York, and many other states are up for grabs between now and the Democrat Convention.  The proportionality of the delegate awards versus winner-take-all ensures a close race and a run to the Convention, where the nomination will ultimately be decided. And significantly, where the first openly Democratic Socialist Platform since 1944 under FDR can emerge, and long-range control of the Party be taken by Social Democrats.  Carpe Diem. 

MONEY: Third, You are winning the battle for Money.  Millions of small contributions from You and others allow Bernie to organize and fund the Movement.  California Democratic Speaker Unruh also said, “Money is the Mother’s milk of politics.”  (Today, see the Koch Brothers.)  The amount and nature of the Money make Bernie and the Movement independent, powerful, liberated, revolutionary, and deadly to Conservatives, Big Capitalists, and their Liberal fellow-travelers.  The Money allows Bernie and the Movement to reach and mobilize voters with Ideas that move more and more People to support, vote for, and fund him and the Movement. Carpe Diem. 

It won’t get easier, but only rougher, as the inevitability of the revolutionary Movement Bernie’s parented looms larger and closer on the horizon to the ruling Oligarchic and Political Classes (Establishment).  They will fight harder and harder once they realize what’s happening.  Bumps like Nevada give them a false sense of security and postpone their personal awakening.  For You it should be a window of opportunity to see the real landscape and the shape of things to come.  

By the way, this can be exhilarating and transcendental, in short, fun.  I’ve had the opportunity to run for Senate, coordinate Congressional, State, and Presidential campaigns, and get elected to office.  The more you work the more you learn.  The more you learn the more you win.  When you lose you learn even more.  The key is to keep your eyes open, your beliefs intact, and your heart…well, feeling the Bern.  (Besides, who wants to tell their kids that in the political revolution of 2016, they were so dispirited after the Nevada Caucus, where Bernie “only” got 48% of the vote, they dropped out, turned on, and tuned in to a loop of The Revenant for 40 days and nights?)

If you aren’t more motivated than when you started this Memo, try this.  A Friend on Facebook posted today that she pronounces a person’s name and adds “Attorney at Law” to see if it sounds professional.  Although meant to be self-deprecating about her ‘so-called life,’ I think it is quite profound.  Say the name of everyone running for President, and add “justice,” “equality,” “liberty,” “income equality,” or “leader” and see if it sounds like the future you really want in your Lifetime.  If you don’t feel the Bern then, good luck.

We are armed with the Ideas, People, and Money to win in our lifetimes today, the American promise of justice, equality and liberty, in our Lifetimes and  children’s Lifetimes, to come.  Another chance may not come again.  Don’t make the mistake we Boomers made after 1968 and 1972. 

Seize the Day.  Seize the Election.  Seize the Power.