A New National Progressive Movement Is Emerging in the Shadows of the Sanders Campaign
By Steven Rosenfeld / AlterNet May 20, 2016
The sun was hot. The shade was sparse. Yet they kept coming. For three-plus hours on Wednesday morning, several thousand Bernie Sanders believers of every stripecollege students cutting class, older retirees and labor activists, parents with teenage kidswearing every imaginable Bernie pin, tee-shirt and baseball cap packed the dusty field at the Santa Clara fairground near San Jose, California. They more than eagerly awaited his arrival.
Hes the best candidate ever, one man blurted out. Feel the Bern! Feel the Bern! people spontaneously chanted. The sound system played Bob Marley, Neil Young, John Lennon and Steve Earle, who growled The revolution starts now
As they waited 1960s folk superstar Joan Baez took the stage and sang, The opposition candidate is stirring up a fuss. Shes got the billionaires, hes got us
Behind the bleachers stood a young man from nearby Santa Cruz, Jonathon Lachlan-Hache, handing out postcard-size flyers. This is a new tool for local organizing, he said repeatedly, giving out cards that urged people to use a website he created.
Bernforce.com lets activists put in locations and find and post campaign-related events, discussions, organizingincluding for other progressive candidates. I am absolutely determined to keep the campaigns energy going, he said. The nomination happens at the convention. This is a close race still.
Lachlan-Hache handed out 1,200 postcards. As he pulled out his smartphone to show some Sanders volunteers how to use his website, the campaigns advance men were handing out orange wristbands to the most exuberant supporters so they could fill the bleachers behind the podium. Nobody associated with the campaign wanted to talk about anything other than the necessary steps to win big in California on June 7, where 475 delegates are at stake.
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http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/new-national-progressive-movement-emerging-shadows-sanders-campaign