A lot of people are saying that the positions Bernie Sanders and his people negotiated in the Democratic Party platform are meaningless, are bullshit, are worthless. They say Hillary will ignore them.
The latter may be true. Hillary may very well ignore the platform. But they are very very wrong.
There are thousands of down ticket Democratic candidates throughout the US. Some are running for the Senate and the House. Some are running for state, municipal or county offices, or school boards. And all of them now have the cover, the official support of the Democratic party, endorsed by Hillary, to take stands on and embrace the issues the platform embraces.
This is a big deal. The platform will stand for four years. Tens of thousands of Democratic activists who may have thought they could never win primaries or the support of local Democratic organizations can now be confident that they are advocating positions endorsed at the highest levels.
In the past, with tepid platforms which did not go progressively far enough, progressives who could have run would open themselves to ridicule and attack if they took bold progressive stands. Bernie has changed the political soil, cultivating it so strong progressive candidates can grow where they never could before.
It is tragic and painful that the DNC worked with Hillary to rig the elections-- an outrage. But it cannot be said that what Bernie has accomplished is meaningless.
At just about every Bernie Sanders Rally, Bernie would tell the crowd, "Change never takes place from the top down. it always takes place from the bottom-up"
Bernie, while seeking the most top-down, powerful position in the world, built what could be the most powerful bottom up supportive mechanism for building progressive political power and advocating for progressive issues and values ever created, for generations.
That is far from meaningless, far from bullshit, far from nothing.
I took this screen shot of Bernie giving his talk at the DNC convention last night. He looks both hurting and angry. We are angry. WE have reason to be hurting and angry. But Bernie has given us an incredible way for us to channel our anger into progressive progress and victory.
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