568k 
233k 
41k 
Subscribe 
Or look further back in American history. LBJ’s the favorite example for this “effectiveness” argument and indeed he was the legislator that twisted the final arms to get landmark civil rights legislation in place. But it was only because people had spent a generation building a movement that he had an opening. The hard, desperate part was changing the zeitgeist, which involved changing enough hearts. The Voting Rights Act didn’t propel the civil rights movement; it was the other way round.
By this token, Bernie Sanders has already changed the world more than Hillary Clinton, despite all her vaunted years of experience. She manages process, but he moves the argument. Because of him there’s a reasonable chance now that the TPP trade agreement will fail (he’s already moved one of its authors, Hillary, into opposition). He’s made it necessary to take inequality seriously—he’s the next stage, after Occupy, in moving the issue to the center of the stage and the longer he lasts and the better he does the more attention it will get.
No, none of his plans will pass Congress intact. (Nor hers—see, for instance, her badly mismanaged effort at health care reform in the first Clinton administration). As the Prussian chief of staff once remarked, “no plan survives contact with the enemy.” Instead, what survives is momentum, trajectory. Movement. If Sanders can keep building a movement, then he has a far better chance of changing history than she does. Hillary promises constantly that “I’ll be there every day, fighting for you.” Bernie’s slogan is #NotMeUs. There’s all the difference in the world.
Good night, America. A good night, indeed. #NotMeUs pic.twitter.com/yPIRNjlVFK
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) February 2, 2016
Now, you could argue that a manager is better suited to the presidency. We’ve had one the last eight years and he’s done a good job of cleaning up after the mess he inherited; the country, by and large, has been well run. So if you think that there’s already enough momentum around issues like inequality and climate change, then it makes sense to elect another manager president. Washington pundits like the world pretty much as it is; it’s working pretty well for them.
But younger people and poorer people may not see the world the same way. They may sense an urgent need for change. I mean, we’ve just broken the planet’s temperature record two years in a row. If you think that we need a leader who will push to change the way we see the world then it makes perfect sense to imagine Bernie as the realistic candidate, the one who will get things done.
My guess is that the establishment pundits actually understand that and I think they fear it a little. The polls in Iowa showed that rich people were backing Hillary while poorer people—who can’t endure much more of the status quo—came out for Bernie. That should make you think.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Watch Larry David and Bernie Sanders ‘Bern It Up’ on Saturday Night Live
Noam Chomsky’s New Doc Gets Huge Praise
Pharma Executives Worried Over Presidential Candidates Demand for Drug Price Reform
Jimmy Carter: Citizens United ‘Gives Legal Bribery a Chance to Prevail’