Bernie Sanders understands that it is the establishment
In perusing the sensible blogs I love reading I ran across Stace Medellin’s article titled “The Annoyance That Is Democratic Pragmatism” which immediately stoked my interest. Folks, this is a must read.
Stace used one of Martin Luther King statements that articulates a problem that lives on.
… Clinton will work from the middle to the right to convince Republicans, as if this worked for President Obama. The fatalism that has penetrated supposed liberals in defense of their candidate is quite sad.
That I first noticed these chants around the MLK, Jr. holiday makes it even sadder. Martin had a dream, remember? Suppose white allies back then told him he couldn’t get all he was calling for.
Oh, that’s right, they did.
“First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action; “who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.”
Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
I think MLK, Jr.’s statement now needs a corollary. It is no longer just the white moderate/liberal. Race has always been solely a social construct used to ensure a very few had ultimate power even though the masses never realized that. The dynamics have changed in this growing and complex country. The race construct while still very much enforce is no longer as effective. Support for the status quo and “order” is now establishment. So the fight is in fact against the establishment. And that is the revolution Bernie Sanders is attempting to instigate. Now that many whites in America are feeling the non-white instantiation of life, not by choice but ultimately by design of the establishment, that revolution could be closer than many think. I repeat, there will be a new America when the barrios, the ghettos, and Appalachia unite. Stereotypical but you get the point.