PHILADELPHIA — “What we want to achieve,” Sen. Bernie Sanders told a raucous rally hours before the Democratic National Committee began, “is nothing less than the transformation of American society.”
“This campaign is not just about electing a president — as important as that is,” Sanders said to a thousands of supporters at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. “It is about building a movement to transform this country.”
To that end, the Sanders campaign is evolving into a permanent grassroots political organization to push progressive policies, Sanders and his campaign officials announced at the rally.
Progressive activists hope Sanders’ surprisingly successful — but ultimately failed — campaign for presidency will bear fruit in the long run through this organization.
“Our revolution did not end” with Sanders defeat rapper Killer Mike said before Sanders took the stage, “we have been transformed, and good enough is no longer good enough.”
“Our Revolution” will be a nonprofit political organization that will support progressive candidates up and down the ballot. A few hours before the convention officially began Sanders and his staffers announced the organization, and recruited volunteers at a Philadelphia ballroom filled with a couple of thousand people.
“The American people want a bold progressive agenda,” Sanders said to cheers at the rally, “that takes on the billionaire class in the fight for social and economic justice.”
The group’s priorities will be opposing the Transpacific Partnership trade agreement, higher minimum wage, and advancing tuition-free college, single-payer healthcare, and criminal justice reform.
As the heir of the Sanders presidential campaign, the group will be run by officials from the Sanders campaign, and — perhaps most valuable — it will inherit the rosters of millions of supporters and more than two million donors. These lists represent motivated progressive activists that organizers hope can fund the organization, recruit candidates, and more.
Tascha Van Auken, a Sanders delegate, said before the rally that long-term organizing was her goal at this convention. Van Auken said Sanders’ “message from the beginning is that no matter who is elected, the important part is that the grass roots becomes more active and builds networks, and builds a movement that lasts beyond the campaign, because people in power don’t pass progressive rules out of the goodness of their heart, you have to force them to do it.”
Actress Rosario Dawson implored the Sanders-loving crowd to “keep pushing” after the election to ensure elected Democrats advance progressive policies.
Many Sanders delegates and supporters came to Philadelphia and even the Monday afternoon event itching for a fight with Clinton delegates and the Democratic National Committee.
Sanders didn’t advocate any disruption in Philadelphia, but he did throw some elbows at the party leadership.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s “resignation opens up the possibility of new leadership atop the Democratic Party,” Sanders said to cheers. “And will open the doors of the party to those people who want real change.”
At the end of his talk, Sanders told his supporters to vote for Hillary Clinton. This elicted loud boos and yells, interrupting his speech.
Timothy P. Carney, the Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
