CP: The Wikileaks revelations, and quashed FBI investigation into Clinton Foundation (not to mention email server controversy), have had a huge impact on Berners' perceptions of a "stolen election," and, consequently, a significant defection (#DemExit) to the Green Party. Add to that the recent Stanford study, which concludes that Bernie would have won, if not for outright vote fraud, and you have a perfect storm of independent voters and activists who could shape numerous elections and policy debates to come.
JB: So how does the "Our Revolution" inside-outside political organization and strategy succeed in the face of the Establishment Democrats and their corporate funders?
CP: Okay, so this is where Bernie's "Our Revolution" (being launched 8/24) perpetual campaign for democracy restoration and global responsibility will, I believe, make substantial gains in 2017 local races, and 2018 up-ballot contests, ballot initiatives, and state party reorganization efforts, until -- over the course of a few election cycles -- the Democratic Party returns to its Social Democratic roots of the FDR/Truman 1930s and 1940s. Again, this will require mobilization of roughly 3% of our voting-age population, fully-engaged with an opportunity-centered grassroots strategy focused on elections at all levels, issues at all levels, and Democratic Party structure at all levels.
The "Our Revolution" strategy of the economic 99% will far transcend the national Democratic Party's disproportionate focus on presidential politics -- an economic 1%-driven practice developed in Wall Street board rooms, funded by self-serving corporate interests, conducted and enabled by elected and unelected careerists working in WDC and state capitals, and carried out by meagerly compensated foot-soldiers whose institutions align themselves with the Democratic Party. Realistically, the "Our Revolution" movement, emanating from Bernie Sanders' presidential run, may well represent the last best chance we have to restore our democracy, reverse climate change, and stop the political-industrial complex of institutions that serve Wall Street oligarchs. As a 45-year activist and 25-year professor of history and politics, I am optimistic and confident we will win this nation back through a dedicated People's Revolution, working on parallel tracks to achieve, again, democracy restoration and global preservation.
JB: I'm glad you're optimistic. Optimism is in short supply these days. What haven't we talked about yet?
CP: Whistleblowers. In the United States, where the National Security State has hijacked the instruments of domestic and international power, where corporate power centers such as ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) and the Business Roundtable (top-125 companies) exercise unfettered control over Congress and the majority of state legislatures, and where the mainstream media has become a rental platform for pervasive corporate propaganda -- with all of these daunting challenges, corporate and governmental whistleblowers have never been a more critical lynchpin for restoring access to truth, institutional accountability, and restoration democracy. If not for rampant governmental and corporate secrecy -- something that encourages, fosters, and feeds corruption, greed, law-breaking, and overreach -- we wouldn't have a need for whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, and Karen Silkwood, or conduits like Julian Assange.
Meanwhile, the Obama Administration's war on whistleblowers is shocking and unprecedented, and yet all but ignored by the corporate media. Last time I checked, there have been eight prosecutions since 2009, with each case citing the 1917 Espionage Act. By contrast, there have been three total prosecutions under all previous presidents combined. Despite certain laws and so-called company protections for truth-tellers, in the name of "national security" and "institutional preservation," these laws and protections are increasingly set aside, thus accelerating the assault on anti-corruption, institutional accountability, and courageous acts of patriotism. These developments are debilitating for a fledgling democracy such as ours. Disturbing too, of course, is Hillary Clinton's recent hiring of Debbie Wasserman Schultz onto her campaign after WikiLeaks exposed the DNC collusion with HRC and media outlets, aimed against Bernie. Makes you wonder what kind of president Hillary will be toward "unfriendly" whistleblowers, and in light of Obama's own anti-democratic crusade. So, as we move deeper into the movement to protect whistleblowers and pull back the veil of secrecy on governing and and non-governing entities, I hope everyone will see the importance of truth and ethics as a fundamental requirement for the kind of democracy restoration project Bernie's "Our Revolution" is certain to be.
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