The “Revolution” lasted about 24 hours.
When Bernie Sanders grudgingly left the Presidential race, he pledged to continue his Revolution with a new organization dedicated to pushing progressive principles in everyday policy-making.
The effort, dubbed Our Revolution, lasted exactly one day before devolving into a bog of progressive backbiting, oneupmanship, accusations of self-enrichment, and internal squabbling over who, if anyone, was responsible for the Sanders campaign’s failure in the primaries.
Socialists are apparently on the same page about economic collectivism and equitable division of labor, but not so like-minded on a whole host of other things.
The first squabble was over whether to register the organization as a 501(c)(4) organization, ensuring that it could legally lobby Congress but also allowing big-money donors to hide their information. Claire Sandberg, the group’s organizing director, charged that Jeff Weaver, Sanders’s former campaign manager, wanted the 501(c)(4) status so he could “take big checks from billionaires.”
Weaver denied the accusation, saying he thought fundraising was simply a requirement of running a non-profit.
Weaver, who has worked for Sanders for 30 years, also came under fire from his colleagues at the Sanders organization because they blame him for single-handedly torpedoing Bernie’s wave of political change. At one point, the “entire staff” threatened to resign if Weaver remained in charge of Our Revolution. But cooler heads eventually prevailed.
From the team of 15 that started the organization, only 10 are still standing just 24 hours after launch. The biggest wedge between Bernie and his new team was his wife and board member, Jane Sanders, who is a bit of a lightning rod after being blamed for running Burlington College into the ground in a spending spree. Her continued participation in the Revolution drove away an organizing coordinator, a data analyst and a member of the political team.
Our Revolution is supposed to be helping Sanders influence political elections, but the Vermont Senator isn’t terribly popular on the campaign trail. New York’s Zephyr Teachout, running as a progressive for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, asked Sanders not to come to her aid. Sander’s Revolution Messaging team will help behind the scenes exclusively instead, and in a similar capacity on Tim Canova’s Florida campaign to unseat Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Despite these setbacks, the team remains enthusiastic, telling POLITICO and others that they’re ready to get on with the hard work of making big changes in this country. They plan on kick-starting the organization this week with a series of “house parties,” which Sanders himself will address by LiveStream.