Bernie Sanders and "Movement Politics"

[MineralMan]

25. Patriarchy, absolutely.

It was the late 1960s, and women in the movement were treated poorly, especially by the "leaders." I remember many young women with great ideas who were simply ignored. Most planning sessions were pretty much male-only at the time, which was hugely frustrating for the women who were involved.

I was pretty young at the time, and most of the leaders were in their 30s. I remember being puzzled that women were not more prominent, since I knew plenty of them whose ideas were at least as valid as the men who were running the show, pretty much.

I was more of a second-tier person when it came to planning and stuff like that. There were plenty of more assertive personalities involved throughout, and I wasn't ready to push that hard, I suppose.

After I left the DC area, I returned to California and went back to college. I didn't exactly drop out of things, but the school I attended wasn't on the forefront of political action, by any means. It was mostly an engineering and agricultural school. There was some activism, of course, and I was part of that, but it was not tightly focused there, nor highly visible.

After graduating, I stayed in that area of California and got more involved with the Democratic Party organization there. We managed to unelect the Republicans in the state legislature and our congressional representation in a few years. We shifted local government to the left, as well. Little by little we helped move that area into becoming a more liberal community. Ever since, I have been involved in Democratic Party politics on the local level, and that is enough for me, really.