{"id":1188,"date":"2016-07-25T19:57:29","date_gmt":"2016-07-25T18:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/?p=1188"},"modified":"2016-07-25T20:12:42","modified_gmt":"2016-07-25T19:12:42","slug":"day-4-this-is-what-a-revolution-looks-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/day-4-this-is-what-a-revolution-looks-like\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 4: This is what a revolution looks like"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The calm before the storm. Hurricane Bernie is coming.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Democratic National Convention opens in just a few minutes; I am sitting in the hall, looking down on the delegates and the stage. \u00a0People are slowly coming into the hall. \u00a0This place has the feeling of the calm before the storm. \u00a0And this storm has a name: Hurricane Bernie.<\/em><\/p>\n

Anyway who thought that there would be an orderly transition from insurgent campaign to team players was sorely mistaken. \u00a0Senator Sanders may be convinced of the need to unify the party around presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton. \u00a0But many of his supporters do not share that view.<\/p>\n

According to news reports, the appearance of disgraced former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz at the Florida delegation breakfast triggered boos and shouting.<\/p>\n

Some traditional Democratic activists who were there told news media that they were shocked — shocked<\/em> — at the behavior of the Sanders delegates.<\/p>\n

The meeting of the enormous California delegation apparently also disintegrated into shouting matches. \u00a0Not even the respected Democrat Nancy Pelosi was spared.<\/p>\n

In the streets of Philadelphia, there are thousands of Berners carrying around “Bernie or Bust” signs. \u00a0In the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Bernie’s meeting with delegates attracted thousands of people some of whom, like me, were turned away.<\/p>\n

But even there, as one eyewitness told me, there was little patience for Bernie’s attempt to show some support for Hillary Clinton and unify the party.<\/p>\n

The DNC and Clinton have been incredibly inept at their handling of the Sanders supporters. \u00a0They appear to be taking them for granted, assuming that they have nowhere else to go. \u00a0After all, it’s either vote Clinton or get Trump.<\/p>\n

And yet — people are angry<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This evening Bernie will address the convention and the world. \u00a0I am looking out over a sea of journalists; there are several thousand here. \u00a0Sanders speech will be transmitted live and millions will hear him speak in real time, many for the first time.<\/p>\n

It now seems clear that his message will be one of continuing the revolution, but will also call for support for Clinton.<\/p>\n

Sanders’ supporters will almost certainly welcome him with a standing ovation. \u00a0But they may interrupt him if he says anything positive at all about Clinton.<\/p>\n

They are an unruly crowd, undisciplined, under no one’s control. They cannot be managed or dictated to. \u00a0They must be treated with respect.<\/p>\n

And above all, they must be listened to.<\/em><\/p>\n

They want to be heard. \u00a0And tonight, they will be heard.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is what a revolution looks like.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Democratic National Convention opens in just a few minutes; I am sitting in the hall, looking down on the delegates and the stage. \u00a0People are slowly coming into the hall. \u00a0This place has the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dnc-2016"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1188"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1194,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188\/revisions\/1194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}