Portside

Elected officials operate within the parameters of possibility. Movement politics is about redefining those parameters. Whoever is elected in November - even Trump - takes office in a country percolating with organized discontent at inequality, climate change, Citizens United, police violence. That's movement politics.

Throughout the twentieth century, liberal wisdom held that "socialism" or a social-democratic political formation could not be viable in America. Future historians may look back at the 2016 Sanders campaign as a great wave that swept away this old wisdom. But that new history will be written only if activists seize the opportunity before us to build, from the enthusiasm and activism of the Sanders campaign, enduring organizations.

How – and how far – the “political revolution” will continue remains to be seen. What has already occurred is a surge of support for the Green party. Many of Sanders’ delegates will be pressing the campaign’s radical demands within the Convention. This activity will draw its participants beyond what they could hope to achieve within the constraints of Sanders’ candidacy. Yet it was the vast reach of that candidacy which made possible these steps to go beyond it.

Between 2009 and 2013, the number of people ages 50 and older in federal prisons increased by 25 percent, making them the fastest-growing segment. Compassionate release has been granted infrequently. From August 12, 2013, to September 12, 2014,2,621 federal prisoners applied for compassionate release.Of those, only 85 people were ultimately released.

Minneapolis is a case study in how police hate speech fosters a climate of violence.

Baltimore prosecutors failed to obtain a conviction after four trials, meaning there will likely be no criminal accountability for Gray’s death from a ‘rough ride’

Bernie Sanders succeeded in pulling both the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton to the left. But a loud minority fails to see this victory.

Neofash at RNC; Ailes and GOP circle the drain; Pence = death; Return of the lynch mob rope; Election art; Jocks stand up

The complete transcript of the prepared remarks from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ speech to the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Class in America is a complicated concept, and it may be that Trump supporters see themselves as having been left behind in other respects. Since almost all of Trump’s voters so far in the primaries have been non-Hispanic whites, we can ask whether they make lower incomes than other white Americans, for instance. The answer is “no.” (This article appeared during the primaries this Spring. It is still relevant today as we analyze who are the Trump supporters.)