The Secret to Bernie's Campaign

By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Facebook Page

04 September 15

hat's the secret of the @berniesanders campaign, beyond Bernie himself? Today I counted another 14 groups that have sprung to life over the last several months -- all appearing in my email or phone mail, or I discover from friends or former students. And all are engaged in one way or another in building support for Bernie around the country,

I'm always wary of "astroturf" groups designed to resemble grass roots, but these are the real thing. I've spoken with several organizers who hadn't had any contact with the official campaign but felt they "had to help organize" for Bernie, as several of them told me.

I have no idea whether all this grass-roots activity will take Bernie all the way to the White House, but I do know it's real and it's important -- and it's under the radar of Washington insiders and pundits who look only at how many organizers are on a campaign's payroll or how many dollars a campaign has raised. The Sanders campaign isn't like any other campaign I've witnessed since Eugene McCarthy's anti-Vietnam War presidential insurgency -- which didn't get McCarthy elected but gave birth to a national grass-roots movement that ultimately ended the war. Peaceful change of the magnitude we need can come about only when millions or people are organized and mobilized to demand it. Bernie's presidential run is catalyzing such a movement.