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Maxwell: Run for office or lose

 
Sen. Bernie Sanders vowed to keep up the fight for change.
Sen. Bernie Sanders vowed to keep up the fight for change.
Published July 1, 2016

Bernie Sanders still refuses to acknowledge defeat and put his full weight behind Hillary Clinton, the Democrats' presumptive nominee for president. He says he will vote for her, but he has yet to endorse her.

Instead, he is doing something that may help him deliver, at least in part, on his promise of a "political revolution" in the Democratic Party. During his June 16 speech, he asked his army of mostly young progressives to continue the fight after the party's convention this month in Philadelphia.

"Real change never takes place from the top down, or in the living rooms of wealthy campaign contributors," he said. "It always occurs from the bottom on up — when tens of millions of people say 'enough is enough' and become engaged in the fight for justice. That's what the political revolution we helped start is all about. That's why the political revolution must continue.

"Now we need … to start running for school boards, city councils, county commissions, state legislatures and governorships. State and local governments make enormously important decisions and we cannot allow right-wing Republicans to increasingly control them. … I also hope people will give serious thought to running for statewide offices and the U.S. Congress."

One big irony of Sanders' new crusade is that the Vermont senator, who casts himself as a political outsider, is himself an elected official who disparages his fellow elected officials in both major parties. Now, after losing the nomination to Clinton, he is asking his supporters to do something sensible: run for public office to secure power to bring about positive change.

Sanders does not have to write a new playbook. He can start by encouraging his people to study the past. He can point them to the successes of some old adversaries.

The religious right's school board movement that began in the 1980s upended public education in many parts of the nation. This was especially true in the South and West, where hundreds of religious conservatives won school board seats through sheer grit and organizing.

Shortly afterward, many school districts began allowing, among other activities, silent prayer in classrooms, religious clubs to use classrooms for meetings and the teaching of creationism alongside evolutionary theory.

Most recently, the tea party movement changed the tenor of politics in Congress and statehouses and shifted power. How did they do it? They got elected. Once in office, they pushed their agenda. Although the movement's broad appeal may be waning, its influence will last for a long time.

Sanders seems to be trying to prevent his legion of young supporters, who have eschewed politics, from suffering the fates of other insurgent movements such as Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter. Both groups pride themselves in being leaderless, not having a well-known person speaking to them or for them and neither having effected legislative change.

Ironically, U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, the lone civil rights icon in Congress, participated in events of both groups and offered his assistance. He was treated poorly by each, which is too bad because Lewis, like Sanders, has a lot to teach young people about the efficacy of politics.

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I single out Lewis because he attempted to get involved with Occupy and Black Lives Matter on his own accord and because he said he cares about their efforts. Often referred to as "the conscience of the U.S. Congress," Lewis, who was brutalized by white racists during the civil rights era, knew that to have real impact, he must hold office. In 1981, he was elected to the Atlanta City Council and then to Congress in 1986 for Georgia's 5th Congressional District, the office he has held since then.

The playbook is out there, and many role models such as Lewis are willing to mentor. For starters, Sanders should introduce his army to Lewis, who has dedicated his life to protecting human rights and civil liberties.

He is an exemplar of bold leadership. If anything is to be done about guns anytime soon, Lewis will be out front. He led the recent sit-in on the House floor in trying to force a vote on a "no fly, no buy" bill that would bar terror suspects on the "no-fly" list from purchasing guns.

"We have been quiet too long," he said. "How many more mothers? How many more fathers need to shed tears of grief before we do something?"

Lewis can teach Sanders' people how to make a positive difference, how to get elected and re-elected. And without unseemly bitterness.