The Guardian
US politics
Opinion
Only Bernie Sanders can break the power of capitalism in the US
Paul Mason
Monday 18 April 2016 10.01 EDT

Defining the US Democratic presidential race as a choice between economic and social justice was a masterstroke from Hillary Clinton. But Sanders has something that she lacks: the ability to build a movement

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So for all the global media’s obsession with Trump, the real question in this election is: what kind of progressive politics will govern America – one that leaves the power of money intact or, as in the great reforming eras of US politics, fundamentally re-orders capitalism?

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America’s progressive majority needs not just a Democratic president. It needs a presidential candidate who can deliver, either this year or by mid-term, a majority in both houses of Congress and who is determined to engineer a liberal supreme court for a generation. Whether on the issues of class or identity, that is the war that needs to be fought. And only Bernie Sanders can win it.

Why? In the first place, because the majority needed in Congress can only be delivered by high Democratic turnout. The system is so gerrymandered at local level that the Democrats need an 8-10% lead to win a slim majority in the House. Sanders, unlike Clinton, has a clear lead over any Republican candidate in polls of all voters. Indeed, 33% of Sanders’ supporters in one March poll said they could not bring themselves to vote for Clinton if selected.

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But Sanders has something that progressive America needs: the ability to build and sustain a movement. Since 2011, the huge weakness of the progressive activist generation has been their tendency to flip from heroic actions – Wisconsin, Occupy, the Black Lives Matter movement – to footsolider status in short-lived presidential campaigns.

By contrast, the right has a grassroots movement that, aided by the dollars of the Koch brothers, will harass and sabotage the next Democratic president. It is this movement that has delivered the local counter-revolutions on abortion; that harries migrants; that passes byelaws disenfranchising black voters.

The progressive majority in America needs to become a counter-movement. It needs to occupy not just the occasional park, university or road junction. It needs to occupy the actual political space now squatted by the right: the town hall, the state Capitol, the courtroom, the education board, the voter registration system.

That movement would have to neutralise rightwing working-class opposition by appealing – across the formal divide of politics – to the desire among many on the right for economic justice. It can only do that by fighting the power and privilege of the very people pouring money into the Clinton campaign. It’s hard to imagine Hillary Clinton doing that. A lifetime in elite politics and a bank account enlarged with speaker fees from Goldman Sachs stand in the way. With Bernie Sanders you don’t need to imagine.