Bernie Sanders lost the Democratic presidential primary to Hillary Clinton. But it was a glorious loss. And it has become a beginning, not an end. The end of the Bernie Sanders campaign marks the start of a political movement. What are the next steps for this movement and what role will it play in future elections? What is its staying power? And how can a new political generation bring democracy back into the hands of the people and make it truly representative?
Bernie’s campaign made history by receiving a record number of donations from individual citizens, not Wall Street. For the future this could dramatically reduce the enormous power that corporations, banks and Super PACS currently have in American politics. New technology, apps and software have the potential to make campaigning more accessible and affordable to a much wider variety of people and a new kind of political candidates. Bernie’s urgent campaign message about income inequality and the economy of the 99% has galvanised this new movement into action beyond the primaries, at a time when many people of the Millennial generation and in the middle class find themselves squeezed in a post-crisis economic reality.
With: Jane O’Meara Sanders (partner, Bernie’s closest political adviser and founder of Our Revolution), Arun Chaudhary (creative director for Bernie’s online campaign and partner at digital agency Revolution Messaging), Zephyr Teachout (candidate for the US House of Representative in New York’s 19th congressional district), Saikat Chakrabarti (director digital organising technology for ‘Bernie 2016’ and one of the founders of Brand New Congress) and Josh Smith, Rapi Castillo & Jon Culver (Progressive Coders/Coders for Sanders).