Iowa, a thread.
It's looking like Sanders may win Iowa—and best of all, with the help of immigrant voters, working-class voters, and new voters. Because the votes of these groups are coming out of "satellite caucuses,"
It's looking like Sanders may win Iowa—and best of all, with the help of immigrant voters, working-class voters, and new voters. Because the votes of these groups are coming out of "satellite caucuses,"
they weren't being counted till late last night & early this morning, & many are for Bernie, which only has had the effect of showing that it was these voters who have put (or will have put) Sanders over the top.
How awe-inspiring would it be to win the Democratic Party nomination, to beat Trump and the Republican Party, in a broad coalition of the voters the right most loathes, the voters who represent everything the right hates about the world as it has become?
That's not just winning an election; that's a powerful repudiation of everything the right is. It gives us the chance to turn this into a moment of reconstruction and realignment.
Remember, the New Deal was created, in part, by immigrants and the children of immigrants, who introduced new voters to the electorate—after an equally ugly wave of nativism in this country.
That wasn't just a victory of organized labor; it was a victory of a multi-ethnic working class, again, often of younger voters.
Nothing against the other candidates in the Democratic primary, but none of them organized and mobilized this group of voters in Iowa the way Sanders did.
The Sanders campaign dedicated specific resources and energy to organizing in these communities. The voters come from everywhere:
Ethiopia (political theorist and former GESO organizer Adom Getachew spoke to workers, in Amharic, at a meat-packing plant!), Bhutan, Bosnia, Mexico, Honduras, Macedonia.
They speak French, Kinyarwanda, Lingala, Kirundi, Nepali, Swahili, Amharic, and Spanish.
At a moment when Trump is adding Eritrea, Myanmar, Nigeria, and other countries to his travel ban, what better way to beat him and his minions than to stand alongside immigrant and working-class voters from these and other countries who are willing to stand up for themselves?
What better way to affirm the cosmopolitan and internationalist, humane and multicultural, egalitarian vision of freedom we share than by standing in solidarity, fighting in solidarity, winning in solidarity?
If you live in New York, the deadline for registering to vote in the Democratic Party primary is February 14 (that's if you're changing your party, it's a bit later for other voters, but get it done now!) You cannot vote in the primary if you are not registered as a Democrat.
Register, and vote Bernie! Usually, these things are over by the time the primary comes to New York (in April). This time, that does not seem likely to happen. The campaign will still be on come April. So again: register, and vote Bernie.
