Plan B for the Political Revolution: Playing the Long Game

It's too early to give up on a Bernie Sanders presidency - we need to keep pushing forward.  But... we also need to be gearing up for what comes next.  And we need a "Plan B" if Bernie doesn't make it.  Taking our ball and going home, does not a Political Revolution make.

A "Political Revolution" is about We The People taking back taking back our government.  That's about more than a single candidate and a single office.

Effecting change will require that We the People take back POWER!  We need to bring back Government Of the People, By the People, For the People - and that will require occupying not just the Presidency, but the Congress, Congressional Leadership & Committee Chairs - we need to control the rules, the agenda, and the votes!  And, we need to start taking back State & Local Government as well.

History demonstrates that the fastest route to occupying the seats of power is to take over a major party - the candidates, the platform, and the ability to vote as a block.  In the early 1980s, Republicans started running for every office from dogcatcher on up to the Presidency - taking over not just governments at all levels, but such things as the power to redraw districts to solidify power - and shifting course from the New Deal to the New Right.

1985 brought us the Democratic Leadership Council, and a Party of Centrists and "Republican Lite."  It brought us the Clinton presidency, Barack Obama, and perhaps Hillary Clinton (or, god forbid, Donald Trump).

2008 brought the Tea Party takeover of the Republicans - gilded age economics, antiscience, and barbaric social policies.

2016 brings us Bernie Sanders - who is pulling together movements & millenials (and at least a few of us aging hippies who grew up in the 1969s) - a voting block that represents the future of our country.  Ideally, we represent a large enough block to sweep both Bernie Sanders, and a wave of progressives, into power.

If we succeed, we'll need to back up President Sanders with support that didn't materialize for Barack Obama.  We'll need to keep the pressure on to move forward on an agenda that secures our future.  But if we end up with a President Clinton (or a President Trump), our movement will be even more critical - we still need to take back Congress, and drive the agenda.  We will need, even more, "a political revolution of millions of people in this country who are prepared to stand up and say, 'enough is enough'."  That's the only thing that will bring our nation back from the edge of economic and climate oblivion.

We need a Plan B, a Long Game to reclaim Government Of the People, By the People, For the People.  From where I sit, the surest route forward looks like a wave of millenials taking over the Democratic Party, and from there, taking over the seats of power in Government.

Discuss.....