PHILADELPHIA — Taxing the rich, regulating corporations, protecting abortion, expanding Social Security, Medicare and welfare. A casual observer of Bernie Sanders might think these issues are the heart of Sanders’ campaign and the progressive movement he has inspired.
But something else drives the Sanders revolution more than any of these policy matters do. You can tell when you talk to the Sanders delegates, and the protesters on the streets of Philly. You can tell when you count the signs that listen to Sanders speak.
“If this campaign is about anything,” Sanders said at a rally in New Hampshire back in February, “it is about revitalizing American democracy — making sure that every American knows how powerful he or she is to determine the future of this great country.”
The Sanders revolution is primarily about something prior to the issues. It’s about democracy and civic engagement.
Sanders’ main issue throughout his campaign was campaign finance reform — which is almost a meta-issue. “Overturn Citizens United” was Sanders’ most common refrain, referring to the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that struck down some campaign-finance restrictions.
Ask Sanders’ delegates what they care about most, and campaign-finance reform is tops. Voting rights is up there. The Trans Pacific Partnership is up there, and one of the biggest complaints is how it creates unaccountable institutions.
And the Bernie delegates who caused a ruckus at the convention’s first two days — their complaints were as much about disenfranchisement and superdelegates as they were about Hillary’s unacceptability.
Tascha Van Auken, a New York Sanders delegate, told me that the process was the purpose for her. She conceded that Sanders had lost to Clinton and said she wasn’t interested in the rabble-rousing on the floor. “I’m more interested in meeting grassroots organizers and making any connections that are useful to organizing on the ground moving forwards.”
“His message from the beginning,” she said of Sanders, “is that no matter who is elected, the important part is that the grassroots becomes more active and builds networks, and builds a movement that lasts beyond the campaign.”
At city hall on Sunday, I spoke to a dozen protesters, all of whom loved Bernie. A girl named Sierra had a patch on her backpack that read “Love the Process.” Sierra said she meant the process of “democracy in action.”
“Bernie not only fought for people,” Massachusetts State Sen. Paul Feeney said as he put Sanders’ name in nomination Tuesday, “he empowered people.”
That empowerment is why Sanders excited so many young people. And it’s why conservatives and libertarians need to listen to Sanders, and take some cues.
The average conservative or moderate might look at these Bernie people — with their sit-ins, their chants, their talk of organizing — and call them busybodies. And some of them are. But busy-bodiness is merely an extreme of a virtue. The virtue is civic-mindedness.
Man is a political animal. By nature, we want not only to live our own lives, but also to shape the world around us. This is politics, in the old sense of the word. It’s how we fulfill our duty to love our neighbor, and it’s how we fully actualize ourselves as human.
Politics in the old sense and fulfilling our duty to our neighbors don’t necessarily involve government, especially not the federal government. Serving on the board of your neighborhood pool, serving in your PTA, running one of your church’s ministries — these are all shaping the world around you.
But the institutions of civil society have been desiccated over recent decades. Local governments are less participatory and less powerful. Rotary Clubs, parishes, VFW halls, and private-sector unions are all bleeding members. Blame the expanding federal government. Blame cable TV. Blame some even broader cultural decline. Blame whomever, but Americans today don’t have as many opportunities to flex their political muscle.
The Tea Party was a reaction to this decline. So was Occupy Wall Street. So was the Bernie Revolution.
From a liberal perspective, if you believe in an even more expansive role for Washington, then the campaign-finance focus makes sense. If Washington is where we go to exercise our political faculties, then it’s rational to ask why average Americans don’t have real muscle in Washington. Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are correct that big businesses, including Wall Street, have outsized influence in Washington.
So Sanders and crew respond by arguing that to regain our rightful say, we need to quiet these overrepresented voices.
This is probably folly. Washington is a home game for the big guys. The centralization of power tilts the playing field in favor of the big and well connected.
But Bernie’s folly shouldn’t blind us from the wisdom that precedes it. We’re not supposed to mind our business. American society has stripped us of our ability to live fully human lives — political lives. Bernie’s revolution was, above all, about pushing us to live more fully as citizens. That’s a Bernie idea we all should listen to.
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.
