If you want to see Bernie’s agenda come to fruition

Whether it is to have his back in the White House, or a Hillary nomination instead, if we want to continue Bernie Sanders’ agenda after the campaign, we have to build an organized democratic socialist presence in US politics.

Bernie Sanders is a democratic socialist, which means he believes that both the economy and society should be run democratically. Bernie has long championed public programs and democratic rights which empower working class people and lessen the power of Wall Street and the corporate elite.

At this time, most people in the United States do not classify themselves as "socialist" when asked to describe their politics. However, many of the things they value, particularly progressives–universal (single-payer) health care, equal pay for equal work, greater democracy in the workplace, and providing access to college for all–are at the core of both Bernie’s agenda and the goals of democratic socialism.

Sanders believes, as do democratic socialists, that empowering working people through unions and workers’ cooperatives will overcome the obscene levels of wealth and income inequality in the United States.

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) supports Bernie’s agenda and thus his bid for the presidency, in order to help build a stronger progressive and multi-racial movement in this country, and to build the democratic socialist voice within that movement.

If you want to see Bernie’s agenda come to fruition, only a stronger democratic socialist organization as a component within that movement will change US politics over the long run. Having a stronger democratic socialist presence in American politics will legitimize the word “socialism”, and thus undermine the red-baiting of the Right, which has used that tactic for decades, to try to wreck even the most basic progressive reforms such as Social Security, Medicare, and the civil rights movement.

So, if you like Bernie, check out Democratic Socialists of America, at www.dsausa.org.