BY Noah Smith
There are still many states left to vote in the 2020 Democratic primary election, but the outcome now looks all but certain. Following a series of catastrophic losses in states such as Michigan and Missouri, and facing big deficits in the polls in coming states, Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign has very little chance of victory.
Sanders’s so-called political revolution, centred on far-reaching plans for single-payer health care, free college, bans on fossil fuels and nuclear power, and a revamp of the US economic system, looks as if it has been put on hold. This result mirrors those in a number of European countries, including the crushing defeats suffered by the UK’s Jeremy Corbyn and French left-wing leader Jean-Luc Melenchon.
Sanders’s campaign slogan — “Not me, us” — illustrates a deep longing for a renewal of communalism and cooperation and a rejection of the relentless individualism that has increasingly come to define American life.
Sanders’s followers, however, have much with which to console themselves. Sanders managed to move the Democratic field well to the left on policy, with even moderate front-runner Joe Biden promising a Green New Deal, supporting a so-called public option for health insurance and calling for a $15 federal minimum wage.
And Sanders garnered overwhelming support among young Democrats, suggesting that his brand of progressivism is the future of the party, even if some of his supporters age into more moderate views.
But the young Americans who were energised and inspired by Sanders’s movement shouldn’t simply sit around and hope for better electoral chances four or eight years down the road. There is much they can do now to direct their energy toward the revitalisation of US society and institutions.
US society isn’t suffering from a lack of political rallies, bold policy proposals or Twitter campaigns. It’s suffering from declining civic involvement. As sociologist Robert Putnam has documented, Americans used to be much more likely to volunteer in civic organisations.
This trend of isolation could be due to the internet, suburbanisation, a backlash against diversity or a variety of other changes. But whatever the cause, it seems reasonable to assume that social isolation and declining civic involvement are reasons interpersonal trust has fallen:
If they’re willing to do the nitty-gritty work of making a difference in the places they live and work, young progressives could turn this trend around. Sanders’s campaign slogan — “Not me, us” — illustrates a deep longing for a renewal of communalism and cooperation and a rejection of the relentless individualism that has increasingly come to define American life.
They’re more comfortable with diversity than their predecessors. And as digital natives, they may be able to use the internet to counter social isolation instead of exacerbating it. A tweet by a member of the Democratic Socialists of America gives some hope that this is already happening. User “irockgnomes” recounts how his San Francisco DSA chapter is bringing tents to the homeless.
Respondents reveal that they’re planting chestnut trees, running roundtables to help workers solve workplace problems, organising tenant groups, creating skill-sharing programs, fixing brake lights for bicycles and doing many other communal projects. A second thing young progressives could do is to revitalise the civil service. The stunning and pervasive failures by the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration in the face of the coronavirus epidemic point to the degradation of the country’s essential government services. –GN
