You don't have to get it. You don't have to like it. But when you hear it roaring down on you, you might want to step out of the way.
This is bigger than any of us, bigger than Daily Kos, bigger than Bernie himself. This resurgent revolution, imo, goes back to the 1960s and the Free Speech Movement with Mario Savio at Berkeley.
Mario Savio arrested for free speech in 1964We're human beings!
There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels…upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!
Mario Savio, Speaking on the steps of Sproul Hall at the University of California, Berkeley on December 2, 1964
Broadly speaking, it's the same revolution that's been put down by state violence time and time again. It was dealt a staggering blow at Kent State in 1970 when government forces murdered four student protesters and eleven days later when two African American student protesters were killed and twelve others wounded at Jackson State College in Mississippi.
The nation reeled from the shock of it. Peaceful college students gunned down for protesting. The revolutionaries of the time withdrew, went underground or turned away, but since the conditions that spawned the revolution remained unchanged, it never really went away. The deep dissatisfaction that urged revolution, for a time lay dormant.
It came roaring back to life in recent memory with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Again they suppressed it with state violence.
The sentiment that birthed the revolution, the anger and resentment, and the conditions, the repression, inequality and injustice, never went away. The hunger for justice silently persisted, festering just beneath the surface. The revolution lived on in the hearts of the people. They could stall it, they could disrupt it, they could tamp it down but they could not kill it. The revolution had a life of its own, and it still does. It's a force of nature and will not be denied. Poor people are gonna to rise up and get theirs yet. And anybody who misses the boat, misses the fkn boat.
"More than any other politician in recent memory, Bernie Sanders is focused on reality. It's the rest of us who are lost."
Matt Taibbi
People claim to know, pretend to know and sometimes think they know all kinds of shit that they don't know.
Bernie can't win, won't break 30%, can't gain support among minorities.
Anyone can pontificate but, as mere humans, it's easy to be mistaken.
If you presumed Clinton to be our presumptive nominee, you were wrong.
If you judged Clinton to be the more electable candidate, you were wrong.
If you thought you could declare the revolution to be non-existent, you were wrong.
If you thought you could redefine the revolution to suit yourself and sell that to the rubes, you were wrong.
If you thought you could stop it by hook or by crook, you were wrong.
If you thought that the putrid status quo was worth holding on to or that holding onto it was even possible, you were wrong.
Backing HRC against Bernie, the establishment against the revolution, is sort of like (only much more serious than) not going to Woodstock because you had to mow the lawn that weekend.
You can always lie to your grandchildren and tell them you were all in for the revolution - and just hope they don't google it.
Or you could break out that old photo of you at Woodstock.
My advice, FWIW, is don’t miss the revolution — or you’ll end up feeling pretty silly.
x YouTube Video Join the people! Be a part of the great political revolution of 2016!The revolution's here and you know that it's right.
RIP Thunderclap Newman
x YouTube VideoWhere were you in the revolution, grandpa? I was right there, baby.