It’s Not Really About Bernie
I have to decide if my sanity is worth watching the caucus results tonight or not.
Depending on when you’re reading this the 2020 Iowa Caucus is/will be/has happen(ed/ing). Monstrous mutilation of the rules of grammar aside, February 3rd marks an important day in the American political calendar. On February 3rd Iowa holds their first in the nation caucus, quickly followed up by New Hampshire’s first in the nation primary. These two contests, mostly for the Democrats, not so much for the Republicans, hold a lot of weight in determining the final victor of the presidential nomination process. This procedure, something that feels like it has been happening since November 9th, 2016, decides which Democrat will run against Trump in the 2020 Presidential election. Bernie Sanders, clearly my preferred candidate, holds a lead in the polling for both the early states, and many more after that. I believe he has the best chance of winning the primary, winning the general elections, and creating long term structures that put power in the hands of poorest and most oppressed Americans, and take it away from the capitalists and industrialists who currently hold the keys. That third reason, the long-term structures, keeps me invested in Bernie’s victory.
I know two things are true. One, Bernie, as all people must, will die. Two, change does not happen overnight, and especially not with elections. As befits a humanities nerd, I’ll address claim two first. Long-lasting change – political, ideological, cultural, what have you – does not happen overnight. The Russian Revolution didn’t happen in a day, slavery didn’t decide to off itself one evening because Abraham Lincoln got elected, the Haitian Revolution wasn’t developed in a week, and the British didn’t just say “Oi, mate screw it, I’m going to invent curry chips, ya tosser” on a random Tuesday. All of these things took time. And none of them were pre-ordained, simply because someone won an election. The American Revolution might never had happened, any number of telephone calls could have ended World War One before it started, Brown v. Board of Education might have been dead in the water if all types of other decisions had been made along the way. But they all occured the way did, not because one person decided one day to do something, but because of a long, complex, and often contradictory historical process, uniquely rooted in time, and space. And because people kept on pushing, and pushing, and pushing. Even when it seemed like something might not happened, they kept pushing. And change often doesn’t happen from the top-down either, bestowed upon mere mortals by Titans of Intellect, as some history books might portray it. As historians like Steven Hahn, Peter Linebaugh, Marcus Rediker, Shirley Jennifer Lim, Tera Hunter and others have shown, even the most powerless among us can work to push and make historical change. Change takes time, but it does happen.
So what does this have to do with Bernie Sanders dying? What I’m saying is that he, and probably I, will be dead before we can make a truly just and equitable world. Change doesn’t happen overnight. The pirates and seamen in Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker’s The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic did not live to see the world of revolutionary, multiethnic equality they dreamed of. Not even close. But they worked hard to make it come true, and saw parts of it, no matter how small, happen. And that’s probably what’s going to happen with Bernie. I don’t think he can change the world overnight. In fact, I don’t believe that one man, invested in the project though he may be, can change the world. Bernie is simply the currently most visible torch holder for a movement that has been going on for centuries. So that’s why, when Illinois’ primaries finally come around sometime this summer, I’ll cast my vote for Sanders no matter what happens between now and then. Not because I think he’s cool, or because he has the best plans, or I want to hang out with him and Killer Mike, even though that’s all true. I’m going to vote for him because he knows that this race, is not, and cannot, be about it him. It’s about creating the structures and organization that will carry a platform of justice of all kinds into the future. Economic, racial, gender, sexual, environmental, ability inequality will not end itself in a day or through one person. Vote for someone who knows that.