A Progressive or a Radical? [View all]

by Mike Davis 10/14/15

Sander is a great economist populist, but not an anti-imperialist. However, in my view, this is only a more urgent reason to become involved in the Sanders campaign and criticize it from the inside, as supporters.

Immediately after the Democratic presidential debate last night, Van Jones offered two astute observations: “class won,” as did Black Lives Matter. The former, of course, was the triumph of the Sanders campaign (although it was actually former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb who inaugurated the debate’s discursive revolution by beginning with “working people” rather than “middle class”) while the latter is a tribute to the thousands who have so doggedly stayed in the streets and rudely interrupted political business as usual.

Angry passion and insubordination joined together can succeed as can Old Testament wrath in the case of our guy from Vermont. For the first time since the election of Ronald Reagan, the continuous Republican rightward shift has not been mirrored by a Democratic accommodation to its premises.

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And no one since Upton Sinclair has framed “democratic socialism” — as the restoration of the working class’s “fair share” in the national income — in such a commonsensical and compelling way. Likewise, his crusade for free public higher education is a radical “transitional demand” with more resonance among youth and young adults than any other proposal yet presented ...

More here - https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/10/hillary-clinton-bernie-democratic-presidential-debate/