I thought I knew what I’d do when Bernie Sanders dropped out of this race.
I thought I’d drink myself into a stupor in a bar somewhere, spend half my rent on liquor. I thought I’d drink until my tears had alcoholic content.
So far, I don’t want to do any of that.
My plan for the day, an hour ago, was to do some transcribing, write a story that I’ve been putting off, and go for a long walk.
Now that Bernie has dropped out, my plan for the day is: do some transcribing, write the story I’ve been putting off, and go for a long walk.
I’m going to do my duty, whatever that is, and I’m going to do it as well as I can, and I’m going to live to fight another day.
Do I feel lost?
Yeah. I do.
But does that mean I’m going to get thrown off course?
Nope.
Since 2015 I’ve been singleminded in my personal and political orientation; work to strengthen the left in this country. Create a cultural and political space for left ideas, left culture, left dreams to flourish and grow and take root. The left, I believed, and still believe, is the only way forward for the country and the world, if we were ever going to fight back against the utter war that is being waged against the global working class. There is no solace, no path forward, in the weak liberalism offered by the Democrats, or the false neoliberal snake oil peddled by billionaires and their ilk. (Certainly no way forward in the right-wing reactionary bullshit pushed by Trumpists and the forces of fascism allying against us all over the globe.)
The only way to hammer out a space for the future was to push left.
I was prepared to do it the old fashioned way. Join an organization, in this case the Democratic Socialists of America. Show up for actions. Rallies. Support striking workers. Campaign for local socialist politician-activists. Base-build, push left, have faith that incremental solutions would push us along, eventually, to a space where we could move the Overton window much further left. Open up actual left possibilities. Rally a critical mass of the population to push for policies that will make the world a livable place; push the possibility of dystopia farther away from us.
And then Bernie Sanders came along, and upended all of my carefully laid plans, in the best way possible.
Instead of working to change minds one by one, instead of working to build a base of power that would get eroded by rightwing aggression just as fast as we built it, Bernie leapfrogged us into the future in a way no one thought was possible. Bernie turned out hundreds of thousands of people for his rallies, Bernie pulled vulnerable people away from the siren song of right-wing thought. Bernie taught thousands of people to not think of themselves, but to think of their neighbors. Bernie offered a counter to the rampant selfishness and aimless libertarianism that threatened to consume the politically disaffected in this country.
Bernie surfed the growing left reaction to burgeoning fascism in this country and pushed us further along than we ever would have gotten ourselves. And instead of absorbing the love and praise we gave him, instead letting his head swell with pride until he was a larger than life figure — Bernie was always very careful to reflect the adoration we felt towards him right back to us. He asked us to not care about Bernie, he told us not to worry about Bernie; he wanted us to care about us. Not me, us.
Bernie didn’t create the left in this country, but without him, we wouldn’t even be discussing the left. Without him, we wouldn’t be anywhere near the position we are in today.
Today, Bernie Sanders exits the presidential race, but his movement, it isn’t going anywhere. And ensuring that his movement stays alive; that comes down to you, dear reader.
I take my understanding of what to do next not from Bernie’s campaign, nor some old socialist dogma. I take it from religion. I know next to nothing about Hinduism, the religion of my birth, except the few nuggets of wisdom passed down to me by my less-objectionable relatives. And this is one of them.
Dharma.
Dharma, and I’m probably getting this wrong on some deep theological level, but dharma means “duty”. And this is what dharma means to me: you do your duty, with little regard for the consequences. You plod on, without self-doubt, without worrying too much. You have your marching orders, and you march. If you trust the goals — and by this point, I hope you do, trust in democratic socialism — you keep going, you keep fighting.
Even if this all ends in nothing, even if we achieve nothing of our goals, even if this ends in ashes, with bugs eating your lifeless husk, you doing your duty means something.
The beautiful thing about this way of life is that I am afforded absolute clarity about the way forward. How to carry out the task — sure, that can be debated. And we, the left, are going to have to recalibrate our tactics. And there’s going to be discussion and fights and probably ideological splits that occur about how to best achieve our goals. But our GOAL — achieving a better world for our children — that isn’t really up for debate.
You have my permission to question whether electoral politics are the way forward. You even have my blessing to throw yourself into community self defense or local mutual aid projects, if you’re skeptical of the possibility of achieving worldwide coordinated change. You have my permission to fight like hell to get AOC elected in 2024. But what you don’t have is my permission to give up. You don’t get to roll over and die, you don’t get to shrug your shoulders and give up the dream of a better world. You dream harder, if anything. You do whatever you can to keep the dream alive.
Because it’s not about you, folks.
It’s us.
It’s not about Bernie, it was always us.
So mourn for a minute. Maybe an hour. Cry. Let your tears flow, and then dry your eyes. Wipe your face. And start figuring out how to carry on.
Everything depends on you not giving up.
JAYA TIME is back, you guys. I needed a week or so to recalibrate some things. I’ve fiddled with the numbering, decided to abandon the rigid schedule and format I had prescribed for myself, so I could allow myself a little more creativity and spontaneity.
Feel free to share this post to whoever you think needs a pick me up.
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Try to have a good day, guys. I’ll see you soon.