Portside

We simply can't afford to throw away the energy, the idealism, the thirst for justice that the Sanders campaign has revealed and revived. In the long run, that probably matters even more than who sits in the Oval Office. For the Democrats, the road to reconciliation is not obscure. Sanders is right to rail at our rigged system - but if the Democrats win in November thanks in part to his ideas and his voters, he'll be positioned to do something about it.

Platforms are,a statement of the accepted beliefs of the party assembled. For citizen movements, they are a measure of their progress in defining acceptable opinion. And ideas matter. A commitment to ending segregation or guaranteeing the right to vote. Equal rights for women. No first use of nuclear weapons. The DNC prevented Sanders from picking nurses leader RoseAnn DeMoro - the DNC had not wanted labor leaders on the platform drafting committee.

Bernie Sanders' call for political revolution has inspired grassroots groups to continue his work even after the election is over. In nearly every state, autonomous grassroots organizations began campaigning for Sanders months before his campaign established any official presence on the ground. Now, those organizations are beginning to build coalitions with labor, socialist and progressive groups to set a post-election agenda for the political revolution.