Senator Bernie Sanders shares our political values. Senator Sanders has worked on our issues. Sen. Sanders has worked to build a real grassroots political movement in his home state of Vermont. For trade unionists and union allies, the Senator has been on our picket lines. He's even sponsored our town hall meetings and rallies. Bernie Sanders is one of us.
Bernie even shares our views about how to get things done, how to move our agenda, and how to make our politics work in America.
In an interview this week with Katie Couric, the Senator said: "My view is that the only we can bring about an agenda that works for working families is if millions of people are actively involved in the political process. If a million young people march on Washington they to the Republican leadership, we know what’s going on, and you better vote to deal with student debt. You better vote to make public universities and colleges tuition free, that’s when it will happen."
"We’re already seeing that with the minimum wage. Do you know why the minimum wage is going up around the country? Because workers are going out into the street, so we need a political revolution, in my view, where people begin to stand up and fight and take on the big money interests. If we don’t have that, no president, not the best president in the world will ever be able to accomplish anything."
Politics is not a spectator sport. Effective politics is a participatory sport. Change comes from leadership with vision and thousands or millions of people willing to use their feet, their hands, their bodies to demand righteous change.
From the Revolutionary War to the fight to end slavery to the fight to end southern peonage and segregation to the fight for the right to vote for women to the birthing and building of our labor movement to the fight to save our planet and win equal rights for LGBTQ folks, we have won when we have all stood up. Time to stand up for Bernie Sanders so he can stand up with us.