Only Bernie Sanders can break the power of capitalism in the US

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/18/bernie-sanders-break-power-capitalism-us-democratic-presidential-race-hillary-clinton?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Facebook


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 footsoldier 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.