Rallying for Bernie Sanders, Seminar-Style

[eridani]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/rallying_for_bernie_sanders_seminar-style_20160125#.VqedLknuylU.facebook

Eidt talked of the dangers of transporting oil by truck and by rail through populated areas as well as the risks of depending on fossil fuel. This had a special resonance with the audience, gripped by the recent news of a huge methane gas leak in the Porter Ranch subdivision, several miles to the north in the San Fernando Valley.

Greep walked the audience through the health plan, explaining the meaning of “single payer”—the confusing term used to describe a “Medicare for all” system. Her purpose was to give volunteers ammunition to defend Sanders when they call prospective voters who have bought into Clinton’s distortion of what Sanders is advocating.

Other speakers also covered such topics as the need to reform campaign financing and the evils of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Greep and Eidt are part of the so-called revolution in policy and government that Sanders promises. In the long term, their goal is to push the Sanders program if he wins and to elect state and congressional legislators who support his ideas. In the short term, their goal is to recruit members of existing groups—like Greep’s and Eidt’s organizations—to volunteer for the Sanders campaign.

It’s an intellectual approach to politics in an era when campaigns are driven by hot rhetoric and sensational charges—both beloved by a media industry more concerned with cheap Internet hits than with the intelligent gathering and explaining of the news.

It’s also an appeal to those seeking serious answers to the issues of unequal income, inadequate health care, environmental exploitation and the many other ills that are making Americans angry. This approach addresses the causes of that voter anger rather than just screaming, Trump-style, and it gives substance to the Sanders ground operations in Iowa and New Hampshire.

We’ll see how it works in those two states. Sanders will need plenty of help from voters considerably younger than those in the movie theater audience, and he’ll need these young voters to turn up to vote.

[MisterP]

1. Sanders' campaign is about learning and teaching, of realizing you constitute part of the government

it's not about giving yourself up to the candidate, not about being led into screaming anger, not about chanting "everything I want will flow from N, not because N has a plan but because N is N"

clapping, squealing, and jumping up and down is the opposite of what this campaign is for--because he's the candidate we need, not a candidate who needs votes