The two-time presidential candidate is rallying thousands, but what kind of organization is getting created? Plus, how to understand the attack on ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising powerhouse.
Thank you for this information. Only someone who is a true journalist would observe and report the many facts that the average person doesn’t have access to.
"The bottom line is control." - that's a valid criticism. I vaguely recall Obama had a grassroots organization after his 1st campaign that he let 'die on the vine'. But this takes nothing away from the fact that - Sanders is the leader of the moment and AOC is his heir apparent. Let's hope AOC learns from Sanders's shortcomings and mistakes.
My 'vague recollection' is probably from your article. Re-reading it, it holds up really well and is a prime example of the cost D's have paid for their obsession with control.
Good grief...criticizing the use of jet fuel....Listen to the Sanders' message! Billionaires and corrupt leaders run the country, for heaven's sake! Who speaks for the common people?
Bernie is doing the work that needs to be done. Those organizations you mention need to get their arses off the ground and do their own complementary work with Bernie and AOC. Times are different but people still need great leaders who inspire and stir their hears and minds. Get busy living in this moment and rising to the occasion. It's always easy to criticise.
On a supposedly anti-plutocratic touring circuit with no organizational purpose in sight? And as the Post notes, four paragraphs from the bottom:
"According to the International Energy Agency, 51% of private jets burn around 239 gallons of fuel per hour — meaning they spew more carbon emissions into the atmosphere in 121 minutes than the average person does in an entire year."
That jet fuel fun fact, while in principle true is irrelevant to the driving work that Sanders and AOC and other Progressive Democrats are doing for all of us and the climate. Any particular flight creates an insignificant amount to ppm of carbon in the atmosphere. Totally irrelevant compared to fossil fuel heating, electric production and yes automobiles, buses and trucks.
It’s the swing voters who matter, in a small fraction of the 50 states where Democrats and Republicans compete closely and a small fraction of R/D competitive House districts. What swing voters are shown on screen here, is limousine liberals deplaning from a $15,000 per hour private jet as they go lecture middle America about plutocracy and ecological crisis.
Swing voters will be shown that video again and again, including right before elections, for years and possibly decades to come. Swing voters will draw their conclusions from this as they evaluate Democratic and Republican candidates.
How swingers vote, Republican or Democrat or stay home: this determines whether the United States come January 2027 will keep on being governed by MAGA Republicans in unified powers. Or will swing voters send up Democratic party majorities in November 2026 House and/or Senate elections, from which to restrict MAGA government.
So who else is actually getting out there to create some magic. Yes you can point to the jet miles and your alternative is what??? Let Trump continue his lunacy.
I would ask you to estimate: how many swing voters who elected Trump in battleground states — and how many who elected Republicans over Democrats in competitive U.S. House and Senate races — how many of those *decisive voters* have watched the Fox TV video (or are catching endless replays throughout the media) — of Sanders and AOC deplaning from luxuriant private jet travel to give a speech complaining about rich people’s excesses? Very many, I would wager. Millions upon millions, if not tens of millions.
And then — how many of them are thinking like, ‘Oh snap, I should’ve voted for limousine liberals like AOC and Sanders here, instead of Trump and his MAGA party people?’
I simply don't believe it is factor for millions of Americans who are looking for a fight back leader for what is more than an existential threat to democracy. Trump has upended the political scene to such an extent that climate change has fallen as a voter priority ( I am Australian and this is the case in our upcoming election because of the Trump factor). Time is of the essence to get rid of him.
Did you consult for the Harris 2024 campaign? Also for the Hillary Clinton 2016? It sounds like you could have!
This slogan about “existential threat to democracy” moved few voters in 2024. But in Pennsylvania for example, a swing state, the Financial Times reported (I could hunt for the article) that those voters who self-reported worries about “democracy” — more of them voted for *Trump* as the *solution* to an “existential” worry about “democracy”.
And in the U.S. state structure of elections and policy making powers, it’s fewer than 10 of the 50 states whose swing voters decide the presidency. U.S. House swing seats are just as few in proportion, if not fewer places where a swing margin of low-informed, fickle voters decide which party in Washington DC gets the governing majorities in the House, Senate, White House, and cumulative staffing of the federal judiciary. If you read closely my specific comments here, you’ll see that I am focused on swing voter media exposures and swing voter thoughts and feelings in those specific places where U.S. governing powers get decided, Republicans or Democrats or split powers.
And I think AOC and Sanders have, in recent weeks, done major *damage* to the branding of “progressive” or whatever words you want to describe the most left-green representation in Congress. They’ve damaged Democrats’ brand too.
And I’m *not* entirely surprised by that. Because those two are egoistic celebrities. Neither of them has contributed much, if at all, to bottom-up organization that usually is required for egalitarian political wishes to win power contests for policy making.
Micah’s article puts together the pieces of this picture quite well in my opinion. Thank you, Micah, for this post.
"Bernie Sanders is an egomaniac who thinks he can fix the country entirely by himself! He should listen to me--here's how this one guy could fix the American left if he really wanted to...." Bernie Sanders is someone whose accomplished a lot--he's been elected representative and senator as a socialist, and ran inspiring primary campaigns as the same. Of course he has his drawbacks. It's a big country. Even under Trump, there is room for people to act if they want to do things in a different way than Sanders, who is merely inspiring tens of thousands with the same message he's always brung, and encouraged them to do a few simple things like that collective bargaining measure... You sound pretty well connected--what are your friends who understand what really needs to be done better than Bernie up to that we all should be paying attention to?
Thank you for this information. Only someone who is a true journalist would observe and report the many facts that the average person doesn’t have access to.
"The bottom line is control." - that's a valid criticism. I vaguely recall Obama had a grassroots organization after his 1st campaign that he let 'die on the vine'. But this takes nothing away from the fact that - Sanders is the leader of the moment and AOC is his heir apparent. Let's hope AOC learns from Sanders's shortcomings and mistakes.
Re Obama's lost army, yes, I dug into that story too: https://newrepublic.com/article/140245/obamas-lost-army-inside-fall-grassroots-machine
My 'vague recollection' is probably from your article. Re-reading it, it holds up really well and is a prime example of the cost D's have paid for their obsession with control.
Sanders's personalization syndrome sounds a lot like Jesse Jackson & Ralph Nader.
Good grief...criticizing the use of jet fuel....Listen to the Sanders' message! Billionaires and corrupt leaders run the country, for heaven's sake! Who speaks for the common people?
Bernie is doing the work that needs to be done. Those organizations you mention need to get their arses off the ground and do their own complementary work with Bernie and AOC. Times are different but people still need great leaders who inspire and stir their hears and minds. Get busy living in this moment and rising to the occasion. It's always easy to criticise.
Speaking of Sanders and AOC, who's been paying for the private jet, estimated to cost $15K per hour?
https://bit.ly/NesiCh-2025-4_23
On a supposedly anti-plutocratic touring circuit with no organizational purpose in sight? And as the Post notes, four paragraphs from the bottom:
"According to the International Energy Agency, 51% of private jets burn around 239 gallons of fuel per hour — meaning they spew more carbon emissions into the atmosphere in 121 minutes than the average person does in an entire year."
That jet fuel fun fact, while in principle true is irrelevant to the driving work that Sanders and AOC and other Progressive Democrats are doing for all of us and the climate. Any particular flight creates an insignificant amount to ppm of carbon in the atmosphere. Totally irrelevant compared to fossil fuel heating, electric production and yes automobiles, buses and trucks.
It’s the swing voters who matter, in a small fraction of the 50 states where Democrats and Republicans compete closely and a small fraction of R/D competitive House districts. What swing voters are shown on screen here, is limousine liberals deplaning from a $15,000 per hour private jet as they go lecture middle America about plutocracy and ecological crisis.
Swing voters will be shown that video again and again, including right before elections, for years and possibly decades to come. Swing voters will draw their conclusions from this as they evaluate Democratic and Republican candidates.
How swingers vote, Republican or Democrat or stay home: this determines whether the United States come January 2027 will keep on being governed by MAGA Republicans in unified powers. Or will swing voters send up Democratic party majorities in November 2026 House and/or Senate elections, from which to restrict MAGA government.
So who else is actually getting out there to create some magic. Yes you can point to the jet miles and your alternative is what??? Let Trump continue his lunacy.
I would ask you to estimate: how many swing voters who elected Trump in battleground states — and how many who elected Republicans over Democrats in competitive U.S. House and Senate races — how many of those *decisive voters* have watched the Fox TV video (or are catching endless replays throughout the media) — of Sanders and AOC deplaning from luxuriant private jet travel to give a speech complaining about rich people’s excesses? Very many, I would wager. Millions upon millions, if not tens of millions.
And then — how many of them are thinking like, ‘Oh snap, I should’ve voted for limousine liberals like AOC and Sanders here, instead of Trump and his MAGA party people?’
I simply don't believe it is factor for millions of Americans who are looking for a fight back leader for what is more than an existential threat to democracy. Trump has upended the political scene to such an extent that climate change has fallen as a voter priority ( I am Australian and this is the case in our upcoming election because of the Trump factor). Time is of the essence to get rid of him.
Did you consult for the Harris 2024 campaign? Also for the Hillary Clinton 2016? It sounds like you could have!
This slogan about “existential threat to democracy” moved few voters in 2024. But in Pennsylvania for example, a swing state, the Financial Times reported (I could hunt for the article) that those voters who self-reported worries about “democracy” — more of them voted for *Trump* as the *solution* to an “existential” worry about “democracy”.
And in the U.S. state structure of elections and policy making powers, it’s fewer than 10 of the 50 states whose swing voters decide the presidency. U.S. House swing seats are just as few in proportion, if not fewer places where a swing margin of low-informed, fickle voters decide which party in Washington DC gets the governing majorities in the House, Senate, White House, and cumulative staffing of the federal judiciary. If you read closely my specific comments here, you’ll see that I am focused on swing voter media exposures and swing voter thoughts and feelings in those specific places where U.S. governing powers get decided, Republicans or Democrats or split powers.
And I think AOC and Sanders have, in recent weeks, done major *damage* to the branding of “progressive” or whatever words you want to describe the most left-green representation in Congress. They’ve damaged Democrats’ brand too.
And I’m *not* entirely surprised by that. Because those two are egoistic celebrities. Neither of them has contributed much, if at all, to bottom-up organization that usually is required for egalitarian political wishes to win power contests for policy making.
Micah’s article puts together the pieces of this picture quite well in my opinion. Thank you, Micah, for this post.
Also this Tinsley from April 15:
https://bit.ly/TinslS-2025-4_15
"Bernie Sanders is an egomaniac who thinks he can fix the country entirely by himself! He should listen to me--here's how this one guy could fix the American left if he really wanted to...." Bernie Sanders is someone whose accomplished a lot--he's been elected representative and senator as a socialist, and ran inspiring primary campaigns as the same. Of course he has his drawbacks. It's a big country. Even under Trump, there is room for people to act if they want to do things in a different way than Sanders, who is merely inspiring tens of thousands with the same message he's always brung, and encouraged them to do a few simple things like that collective bargaining measure... You sound pretty well connected--what are your friends who understand what really needs to be done better than Bernie up to that we all should be paying attention to?