Bernie’s Political Revolution Is A Movement That Requires Dedication And Time

On Wednesday, Shaun King of the New York Daily News published an appeal for patience in regards to the progressive movement, A.K.A. Bernie Sanders’ political revolution. King, a Sanders supporter, argued that the Civil Rights movement lasted for 14 years, a fight that consumed most of Dr. Martin Luther King’s adult life. Even now, the Black Lives Matter movement has highlighted the ongoing police brutality and racism that continues, despite significant gains for people of color in this nation.

As the nation enters another era of new political movements on all fronts, we must remember this. We must remember this whether or not the Democratic superdelegates finally wake up and nominate Bernie or stay the course and stick with Hillary. Despite Sanders’ endorsement last Tuesday, his political revolution continues. He did not release his own delegates, nor did he concede. After his endorsement, thousands of Sanders supporters took to social media to voice their displeasure with his decision. Instead of killing his political revolution, his endorsement seems to have invigorated it.

Economic equality. Racial equality. Gender equality. LGBT equality. All of these issues have simmered on the back burner for years as a result of voter complacency and apathy. Sooner rather than later, the resentment and anger Americans feel about these things will boil over, and when that happens the revolution will be unstoppable.

As King noted in his op-ed, it takes time to affect significant change.

“Consequently, now that we are two years in to the Black Lives Matter Movement, we must try our best to recognize that if the Civil Rights Movement began in 1954, we are in our version of 1956. The most momentous changes that we so desperately want and need may not happen for eight or nine more years.”

As King also mentioned, people of African descent in the United States have long struggled for simple acknowledgment that they are humans, not three-fifths of a human, or a sub-human slave. Since the 1600s, descendants of slaves have fought against systematic dehumanization and that battle yet continues. Whether you agree or disagree with its activists’ methods, it’s impossible to deny that Black Lives Matter has forced Americans to confront continuing institutionalized racism against people of color in this nation.

Like every political revolution, change does take time. Every movement has its challenges and victories. Take the Women’s Suffrage Movement. The National Women’s History Museum states that the women’s revolution formally began in 1848 but did not gain popularity among women until the turn of the 20th century — more than 50 years from its beginning.

The National American Woman Suffrage Association and its more militant sister group National Women’s Party both began lobbying to give their fellow women the right to vote. Membership in NAWSA numbered in the millions by 1910, and members of the NWA vigilantly picketed the White House. And yet, it wasn’t until 1920 that President Woodrow Wilson and Congress finally passed the 19th Amendment. That means the radical political revolution that gave women the right to vote took 72 years to succeed.

Today, women continue to fight for their rights, but in 2016, the fight is centered around reproductive rights, equal pay, and health care issues.

Pro-choice advocates now must battle the mushrooming lies spread by media https://t.co/pgCBXl5oQh

— Salon (@Salon) July 10, 2016

The American Indian Movement’s website shows the history of the movement. It had its heyday in the early 1970s after hundreds of years of white encroachment on Native American land, which is essentially the entire North and South American continent. The struggle of indigenous people for equal rights in the United States has been ongoing since the first Europeans set foot on American soil.

In South Dakota, for example, systematic racism continues to disrupt lives. Young children, many of whom are Lakota (Sioux), are illegally removed from their homes by the state’s Department of Social Services.

In one case that is all too familiar, a two-year-old Lakota boy from the Rosebud reservation, was killed by his foster mother after enduring blunt force trauma to his head. He was removed by DSS after his mother had been caught drinking one beer. According to Native News Online, his mother had never been in trouble with the law. She had no history of child abuse, but because she consumed one alcoholic beverage, her child was removed and placed not with a relative, but with a complete stranger who ultimately took the young boy’s life.

Native children are categorized as special needs by the state, and as a result, generate more federal funds for their white foster parents and for the state. The Lakota People’s Law Project is just one example of Native people fighting back against a system that has dehumanized them for centuries. The movement to expose the racism against Native peoples is one borne out of necessity to bring justice to people who have no voice.

South Dakota’s political system is incredibly corrupt and officials break the Indian Child Welfare Act on a routine basis. After years of outcry, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the U.S. Health and Human Services Department are finally looking at the rampant institutionalized abuse of Native children in the state. It will take time, though, as with every movement that seeks political, economic, and social justice.

Take the LGBT movement. Biography.com asserts that it began in the 1970s, when Harvey Milk became one of the first openly gay officials in San Francisco and the United States. Milk’s murder — and the murder of his ally, Mayor George Moscone — propelled gay and lesbian rights into the national spotlight. In the 1980s, Bernie Sanders preceded his political revolution by supporting the city’s first Pride Parade during his time as Mayor of Burlington, Vermont. After more than thirty years, the Supreme Court finally legalized same-sex marriage, one of the cornerstones of the LGBT movement.

With every political revolution, the movement isn’t just about changing laws. It is about changing people’s hearts. And changing hearts takes time. It is why Black Lives Matter won’t allow us to forget those slain by police violence. It is why the American Indian Movement continues to work on behalf of our Native American brothers and sisters. It is why women continue to fight for the right to equal pay and for the right to control their own bodies.

Not enough hearts have changed. Not enough minds have opened enough to embrace those our society has historically marginalized. Until hearts and minds change significantly in this country, every political, social, and cultural revolution will continue to force these issues to the forefront of our collective conscience. Is there time enough for Bernie’s political revolution to succeed? If enough progressives are dedicated and determined, there is.

[Photo by John Locher/AP Images]