Sanders announces ‘Our Revolution’ with national event

Aug. 25--Keagan Vickers thought politics was "really gross." But Bernie Sanders' campaign for President of the United States made her take note and want to become better informed.

Although Sanders lost, Vickers, 18, isn't giving up on what his message meant to her.

"I'm not going to stop being involved in Bernie's values in politics," she said.

Likewise, Sean Rodriguez is young, and traveled to the event from Pocahontas County, wearing a Bernie 2016 t-shirt.

"I see so much wrong at the top of the Democrats and the top of the Republicans," Rodriguez said. "I wanted that to change."

Vickers and Rodriguez were among 25 people who attended a live-streamed Sanders speech Wednesday night at 110 Marshall, one of 14 such events in the state and more than 2,000 in the country. Sanders was reaching out to his followers in an effort to keep them energized through the November General Election, which, as one of the participants said "is the most important election of his life."

Sanders announced the creation of Our Revolution, meant to bolster down-ballot candidates and push issues from "school boards to the U.S. Senate."

Along with those candidates, Sanders urged progressives in the U.S. to vote for ballot initiatives that support overturning Citizens United, the Supreme Court ruling that allows corporations the same rights as people when contributing to a political campaign; automatic voter registration that will allow 18-year-olds to be registered as soon as they come of age; prescription drug price regulations that would keep the cost of medications to the price that the Veterans Administration will pay for them; single payer health insurance that mimics the Medicare structure; and another that prohibits injustices against Native Americans.

Sanders, an Independent, conceded to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention in July.

Until then, Sanders had been something of a political phenomenon -- a 74-year-old, white-haired Caucasian man who called for progressive policies like free college and a $15 federal minimum wage, who had a lifetime record of voting for women's reproductive rights and voted for tax credits for alternative energy producers. He called it a "revolution" and it was set to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel's "America."

The revolution was funded by donations that averaged $27 from 2.4 million donors that raised $212 million, according to Sanders' campaign website.

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He won 22 states, including West Virginia, and 1,900 delegates in the Democratic Primary, fueled by the fervor of young people disillusioned with the current political climate and a candidate they saw as more of the status quo, as well as those who were anti-Clinton.

But Sanders' parry and thrust to continue to help progressive down ballot candidates has induced a revolution of its own, this one within this new organization.

Sanders has long decried the use of "dark money," contributions from 501(c)4 non-profits, which can donate to campaigns, but not disclose their donors, which campaigns do. A 501(c)4 is not allowed to work with individual candidates or their committees.

Individuals can contribute only $2,700 a year to a candidate's committee, $5,000 annually to a PAC, $10,000 to a state or local party committee and $33,000 to a national party committee.

All of those entities can then make contributions to themselves and to each other, with unlimited transfers from state and local committees to the national party and vice-versa.

Because Sanders' Our Revolution is a 501(c)4 non-profit corporation, with the capability of accepting dark money, eight of Sanders' staff members--more than half--resigned over the weekend. His former campaign manager Jeff Weaver will lead the organization.

According to an article in Vanity Fair, "This did not sit well with a faction of the group's staffers who suggested the tax status was not only hypocritical, but would restrict the team's ability to communicate or coordinate with any candidates or elected officials."

No one at the event, which went well past 10 p.m., spoke about the troubles in the fledgling organization, nor did Sanders, who introduced Our Revolution's leaders and said he would have no involvement in its operations.

Sanders did talk at length about the successes of his campaign and praised Clinton for supporting some of his platform ideas such as free college tuition for students in families that make $125,000 or less, the minimum wage hike and, instead of single payer health insurance, affordable health clinics in under-served areas.

"This means the transforming of the United States of America into a society that a handful of billionaires will not control," Sanders said of Our Revolution.

-- Email: ppritt@register-herald.com Follow PamPrittRH on Twitter

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