In an earlier post I mentioned that Hillary had demonstrated in Nevada the skill – political and organizational – to assemble a broadly-based coalition that included most of the main categories of voters that are crucial to winning the nomination. I further added that Bernie hadn’t done that yet. And that is something that he must do, and do quickly, if he hoped to win the nomination, as the primary season headed to the South and Midwest.
Remember hearing this song on an Xmas shopping trip to New York in 1967. I was living in a small town in Connecticut at the time. But with a very meager paycheck in hand, my co-worker and I took a train to the “City” to buy some holiday gifts. We shopped during the day and drank much too much beer at night.
As we visited several watering holes, we must have heard Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” a dozen times on the juke box. Little did I know that a decade later I would be living in Aretha’s home town – a town where music, civil rights, labor rights, and democratic struggles generally intersect in such powerful ways.
For that good fortune, I have to thank the late James Jackson. one of the outstanding leaders of the Communist Party in the 20th century. Jim, as we called him, advised me that if the opportunity ever came up to join the Party’s staff to make sure it’s somewhere in the Midwest. “There is a lot more room to make mistakes,” he said. New York, on the other hand, “is a fish bowl. Everybody will be telling you what you should do.”
With that advice (and the counsel of a few others), I turned down a proposal to join the New York staff a short time later and, not long after that, jumped at the chance to become the Party leader in Michigan. And decades later I’m so glad I did. Nothing that I did before or since compares with 11 years in Detroit.
Anyway, in the waning days of African American History Month, let me tip my hat to Jim for his storied life as well as to Aretha, one of the great cultural treasures of Detroit and the country.
In voting for Bernie Sanders in the Nevada caucuses over the weekend, significant numbers of people registered their disenchantment with establishment politics and economics. Though it wasn’t enough to put him over the top as it did in New Hampshire, with slightly over 47 percent of the vote, Bernie did better than many expected. If anyone thought he would leave for South Carolina with his tail between his legs, they were mistaken.
Linda Ronstadt with the recently deceased Glen Frey and the Eagles
A reader commenting on my recent post – http://samwebb.org/bernies-victory-a-jump-start-to-recast-the-future/ – had this to say, “I have the impression that Sanders was not taken very seriously, in your quarter, until now. Welcome to the Bernie Club.”
What follows is part of my reply: I welcomed the campaign at the outset, but wondered about its ability to reach beyond the left and progressive community. Seems like it has and that’s very positive. At same time, I remain convinced – even more now with Scalia’s unexpected death – that the main strategic task is to defeat the efforts of the right to gain full control of the federal government. Which means, among other things, situating the Democratic Party and its presidential candidates within that context. To wit: I haven’t turned bashing Hillary into my favorite pastime, nor do I subscribe to “Bernie or Bust.”
I find that slogan to be another instance of the longstanding ailment of the left – narrowly constructed strategic and tactical thinking. And don’t think that I let the Communist Party off the hook in this regard. In fact, I said on more than one occasion when I was National Chair that such ideas were a considerable problem for us as well.
