On with the ‘revolution’
They’re just not making revolutionaries the way they used to.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders launched his post-primary Our Revolution campaign this week aimed at carrying on the leftwing agenda he pursued in his race against Hillary Clinton — some of which made it into the Democratic Party platform.
But before the effort even got off the ground, Sanders faced the defection of eight of the organization’s 15 staffers and questions about the sources of its funding. Some would-be revolutionaries left after Sanders announced the 501(c)(4) organization would be headed by former campaign manager Jeff Weaver, blamed by many of the Sandernistas for spending too much money on TV ads, and generally blowing the race.
Others objected to the structure of the group, which would allow it to accept “dark money.”
“We’re organizers who believed in Bernie’s call for a political revolution, so we weren’t interested in working for an organization that’s going to raise money from billionaires to spend it all on TV,” former organizing director Claire Sandberg told the Washington Post.
Weaver insisted, “There’s no reaching out to the Koch Brothers or Exxon Mobil. The truth of the matter is we’re going to rely primarily on small donations.”
As a 501(c)(4) corporation the group can indeed collect unlimited money as long as its focus is “social welfare,” a term now stretched to cover just about any cause. So no surprise the TV ads purchased by such groups sound remarkably like campaign ads. Sanders will not be part of the effort now that it is off and running.
It will be supporting down-ballot candidates who presumably support “the revolution.” What isn’t clear is whether that still includes Tim Canova, the Democratic primary opponent of former Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz — forced to step down after leaked emails showed her involvement in rigging the system for her pal Hillary Clinton.
Canova told a radio interviewer, “When Bernie endorsed me, he called me up, gave me his number, and said ‘. . . please call.’ I have. And I’ve been waiting for Bernie to return my call.”
Welcome to politics, Tim Canova!