The good news for the Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011 is that the revolution lives on. Watching the Occupy movement at the time was painful as the young and inexperienced organizers took their ideas nowhere. It was an ill-timed revolution without a plan. Only the now established anger at the one per cent for holding most of the money lived on.
But the American Senator from Vermont, 74-year old Bernie Sanders, obviously understood. He must have looked at those youngsters on Wall Street and said: There is my mob.
But without a younger understudy, Bernie Sanders efforts are also wasted. He is gathering an army that will need future leaders. It is a movement that America so desperately needs.
Bernie Sanders calls himself a socialist but the reality is in his political career since becoming mayor of Burlington, Vermont in 1981, he has proven himself a social democrat. He can wear that appellation proudly.
In Sanders presidential campaign, he has denounced the corrupt Super PACs of American politics and will only accept donations from individuals. It might leave him behind Hilary Clinton in delegates but it makes his supporters even stronger.
Bernie’s vociferous legions are already confronting the bread and circuses mobs of Donald Trump’s right wing and the battle could rage all the way to the November elections.
The only problem is that Hilary Clinton is still the front-runner for the Democratic Party nomination and Sanders’ problem will be to bring his followers on-side for Clinton. It will all be wasted if Clinton does not embrace some of the left-wing ideology of the Sanders campaign. She will be unbeatable in November if Sanders can get her on board.
Clinton already owns the stance on women’s rights. She needs to speak out on income and wealth inequality, free college tuition, a living wage for all and restoring democracy in the United States. The rest of Bernie’s pledges are all good but she needs to pick those that resonate best with American Democrats. And it is always best to be recognized for one or two things while the rest become a blur.
But Clinton knows all that. She will run a strong campaign for the presidency and she can guarantee the win by bringing along Bernie’s Occupy supporters. They will bring a fresh vibrancy to the campaign. And because the very idea of Trump’s America must be stopped.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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