Bernie Sanders and "Movement Politics"

[MineralMan]

I remembered something I read, back in the mid 1960s about this, so I did a Google search and found it. You might want to read it, with an eye on the 2020 primary race. It's from Dissent Magazine, and was written in 1966 by Tom Hayden. If you have time, please read it and think about where Bernie Sanders is coming from - an era more than 50 years ago:

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/tom-hayden-politics-of-the-movement-1966

The Politics of “The Movement”
Tom Hayden ▪ November-December 1966

My own disenchantment with American society was not caused by its racial bigotry, its warlike posturing, its supreme respect for money. All these might be understood as irrationalities which could be struck from the national character if only rational men were mobilized more effectively. But when events prove this assumption false, then disenchantment really begins: with the understanding that the most respected and enlightened Americans are among the most barbarous.

Take just two examples. There is a conventional notion that the Southern racial crisis is caused and prolonged by “white trash”—an isolated and declining remnant in our society. We are told that rational men are attempting, within the framework of due process, to educate these minority elements to a more progressive social outlook. But this picture is shattered every day by events in the Black Belt. There the murderers of civil rights workers again and again include men like Byron De la Beckwith, the respected downtown businessman who shot Medgar Evers in the back. They are middle class and enjoy the broad support of their local communities.

When this is pointed out, of course, we are told that respectable men are murderers only in places like Mississippi. By national standards, the Black Belt killers are not respectable. But is Mississippi an isolated part of America? If not, who at the national level is responsible for the state of terror in Mississippi? Part of the answer, I am afraid, is that leading Northerners buttress the Southern status quo. Without dozens of companies owned from the North, plus the billions provided by defense contracts and agricultural subsidies, Mississippi could not have survived the postwar period as a racist state. Mississippi Power and Light, for example, many of whose personnel are connected with the White Citizens Council, is owned and controlled by the same men who play leading roles in another corporation known for its enlightenment, Harvard University.

More at the link.,,

Things have moved on for most people, but not for all...

Like Bernie Sanders, I remember that period very well, and was involved in the "Movement," which really didn't move very much at all. I remember reading that long essay and wondering at the time whether anything would come of all of that serious thinking. I moved on to work on incremental change, rather than quick, revolutionary change, and saw things change over the years, mostly for the better.

America in 2020 and in 1966 are very different things. The changes had something to do with that old "Movement" business, but the changes were evolutionary, rather than revolutionary. I moved on from being a 20-something street activist in the late 1960s to a different sort of political activism that focused more on the ballot box than street protests.

I'm not sure Bernie has moved on, really. I hear echoes of 1966 thinking from him. But, it is a different time, over 50 years later, with different situations and different needs. I think Bernie has not moved on quite enough, really.