June 17, 2016

Bernie Sanders Just Made It Official: He Isn’t Dropping Out.

The Vermont senator is trying to lay the groundwork for an enduring movement.

John Locher/AP

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Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders on Thursday night shifted the focus of his presidential campaign, re-framing it as a long-term movement and pledging to fight for change at the Democratic National Convention and beyond.

“Defeating Donald Trump cannot be our only goal,” Sanders said in an online address watched by some 100,000 people. “We must continue our grassroots effort to create the America that we know we can become. And we must take that energy into the Democratic National Convention.”

Noting that he had recently met with his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, Sanders made clear that he would not drop out of the presidential race anytime soon. “I look forward in coming weeks to continued discussion between the two campaigns,” he said, adding that he wanted to make certain that the Democratic Party passes the most progressive platform in its history and becomes “a party of working people and young people and not just wealthy campaign contributors.”

Sanders did not indicate which of his campaign’s core issues might be priorities in his negotiations with Clinton; instead, he rattled off more than a dozen talking points, from raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and winning pay equity for women to implementing a carbon tax and ending “perpetual wars.”

The speech seemed aimed at shifting the focus of Berners from the presidential election to longer-term progressive goals, while still maintaining their interest and enthusiasm. The campaign’s latest slogan—”the political revolution continues”—repeatedly surfaced as a theme.

“We have begun the long and arduous process of transforming America, a fight that will continue tomorrow, next week, next year, and into the future,” Sanders said. He urged his young supporters—”the people who are determining the shape and future of our country”— to run for state and local office. “We need new blood in the political process, and you are that blood,” he said.

Aside from referring interested candidates to his website, Sanders did not say how he might support their efforts. Still, the focus on movement-building appeared to resonate with many of his supporters on Twitter:

 

 

 

Yet the reaction to Sanders’ shift in focus elicited mixed reactions from the Bernie or Bust crowd:

 

 

 

 

Attempting to capitalize on the early idealism of his campaign, Sanders stressed that his race could still turn out to be an historic turning point for  progressives—if his supporters carry out his vision. “My hope is that when future historians look back and describe how our country moved forward into reversing the drift toward oligarchy,” he said, “…that they will note that to a significant degree that effort began with the political revolution of 2016.”

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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