Working Families Party email

[eridani]

I wrote a few days ago that I was on my way to meet with Bernie Sanders as part of a small delegation of Working Families Party staff and leaders. Here's a quick report from the meeting.

My biggest take away was that it really, really, didn't feel like a meeting with someone who is running for President of the United States -- and I mean that in a good way.

For starters, the Sanders campaign office in Washington, DC is in a cramped and unadorned two-story row house in a mostly residential neighborhood. Staffers squeezed around desks and tables, computer wires flying in different directions, post-it notes on the walls, you get the picture. When they say Bernie's campaign is grassroots, that ain't no joke.

Speaking of unembellished, let me tell you about Bernie Sanders. He was completely direct, candid, even humble. He listened a lot. And when he spoke it was like he was speaking with friends, colleagues, collaborators. Over the twenty or so years I've been doing this work, I've spent a lot of time with politicians, and I think I've developed a pretty good bullshit detector. Most of the politicians I've met -- including most of the ones I actually like and respect -- are always putting on a bit of an act. It's just the nature of the business.

Every once in a while, you meet a politician who just doesn't do that. They might not be the most polished or eloquent, but they speak from the heart and they mean what they say. That's the kind of person Bernie Sanders is. Our conversation was like a conversation among a group of people who share the same goals: college education that doesn't leave you saddled with debt, living wages for all who are willing to work, investments in public education not prisons, a sane and humane immigration system, and a political system that is responsive to the concerns of people, not the highest bidder.

Most of what we talked about is something that Bernie has been talking about for years -- building the kind of political revolution that this country needs to ensure that all people can live with dignity and respect -- at work and in their communities.

We've got a lot of work to do. Can we count on you to help? Click here to join the #WFP4Bernie team and let us know how you want to get involved.

Thanks for your support.

Jon Green
Deputy National Director
Working Families Party

P.S. I also could not have been more proud to be among this team from the Working Families Party. I was joined by (from left to right) Rafael Navar; Political Director for the Communications Workers of America; Katelyn Johnson, Executive Board member of United Working Families and the Executive Director of Action Now in Chicago, IL; Bob Master, Co-Chair of the New York Working Families Party and a long-time labor leader; Analilia Mejia, Director of New Jersey Working Families Alliance; Bishop Dwayne Royster, Co-Chair of Pennsylvania Working Families and the Executive Director of POWER based in Philadelphia, PA; myself, of course; and Amanda Johnson, the fantastic National Digital Director for Working Families. Each of them was also inspiring -- and I'd gladly vote for any of them for President too!

http://action.workingfamilies.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=11845

[libdem4life]

1. This is a good thing. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how any Middle Class/actual worker

could find much but a few tidbits from Clinton. I get the Big Union bosses...they are upwardly mobile, but the workers? Hopefully it's just a matter of more information about Bernie because no one else seems to notice them.

Then, there's the notion that the Middle Class is dying and, as Bernie says, we're moving from Democracy to Oligarchy. In the Democratic Party we have an Oligarch running for President, IMHO. We also have one that, no matter how boring or repetitious or grumpy, is desperately trying to wake the little people up...he calls it a revolution and given the facts where this country has drifted, it's crucial.

Here on DU it is usually characterized as the 1%. That is the definition of oligarchy. Please start calling it what it is...an Oligarchy.

"Does it ever feel like just a few people have all the power? If it's a government that's run like this, it's an oligarchy. A country that has this form of government is an oligarchy too.
The political term, oligarchy, comes to English from the Greek with its meaning intact - a form of government run by a small number of people such as wealthy landowners, royalty or powerful military figures. If you say that you can't fight the oligarchy, you mean the leaders of such a place. Sometimes the word refers to the few powerful people in charge of a large company or system. A financial oligarchy might try to block reform."

http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/oligarchy

[SoapBox]

2. K & R

This needed a bump up...can't help but compare Bernie's campaign HQ to her monsterous and expensive office in Brooklyn Heights.

Bernie is sooooo.....normal.