The Right Builds Power. The Left Hosts Rallies. That's Why We Lose.
Lessons from a Former Bernie Organizer and AOC Staffer
by
Bernie Sanders is back on the road. He's touring the country on an "anti-oligarchy" crusade, warning that billionaires are running the show and that we, the people, need to fight back. AOC is with him. They're telling crowds that oligarchy isn't just a looming threat—it's already here.
They're right. But we've seen this movie before.
I know because I was in it.
I left my small business in 2015 to join Bernie's first campaign. I traveled the country organizing volunteers, developing what became the "barnstorm" organizing model that fueled his movement. When Bernie lost, I co-founded Brand New Congress and later Justice Democrats, the group that recruited and helped elect AOC. I was in her campaign. I was in her office. I sat in the meetings where we had to decide:
Do we go to war with the Democratic Party? Or do we try to work with them?
We hesitated. And hesitation, in politics, is death.
That's why I'm watching this new Bernie tour with something between frustration and dread. It looks like 2016. It looks like 2020. And it looks like it's heading toward the same dead end.
Inspiration Without Infrastructure
Bernie and AOC are incredible at inspiring people. No one doubts that. They can pack out venues, light up social media, and get people fired up about fighting the billionaire class.
They can name the villains. They can diagnose the problem. But they won't build the machine we need to actually win.
That's the difference between us and the right.
The Federalist Society didn't just whine about the Supreme Court. They built a pipeline to pack it with ideological soldiers.
The Koch network didn't just complain about taxes. They built a decades-long plan to rewrite policy at every level of government.
ALEC literally drafts model legislation that Republicans pass into law state by state.
AIPAC doesn't just throw money around—they build political machines that destroy their enemies and protect their allies.
And what do we have?
Bernie out here holding town halls, talking about how AIPAC's money is flooding campaigns—without building anything to counter it.
Where is our version of the Federalist Society? Where is our machine for recruiting and backing candidates? Where is the progressive institution that strikes fear into politicians who sell out?
It doesn't exist. And that's the problem.
The Revolution That Never Built Anything
I saw it happen before.
After Bernie lost in 2016, thousands of people—myself included—answered his call to get involved. We built Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress to recruit and elect progressives who wouldn't take corporate money.
We thought Bernie would have our back.
He didn't.
Justice Democrats recruited 12 candidates that first cycle. One of them was AOC. She pulled off one of the biggest progressive upsets in modern history. And for a moment, it looked like we were actually going to build something.
AOC began her congressional career boldly challenging the Democratic establishment. She sat in Nancy Pelosi's office with climate activists, called out corruption, and backed primary challengers. She's consistently been one of the few voices pushing the party toward genuine progressive policies.
Operating within Congress, she's had to make strategic choices about how to be effective. She's working within a system designed to resist change, trying to transform it from the inside - which is incredibly difficult work. She's building relationships and working to move the Democratic Party in the right direction.
The challenge isn't about her commitment or effort. It's that even the most dedicated individual lawmakers can't transform the system alone, no matter how brilliant or tireless they are. The structures of power are designed to absorb or neutralize individual challengers.
Even someone fighting as effectively as AOC within the system needs a movement infrastructure outside it, pushing in the same direction. She's doing her part inside the halls of power, but she needs reinforcements.
And Bernie?
Bernie has spent his entire career fighting the right fights—pushing for Medicare for All, labor rights, and an economy that works for working people.
But his theory of change is wrong.
He believes if you get enough people mobilized, enough pressure applied, enough public support, then eventually, politicians will have no choice but to bend.
But the right doesn't just pressure the system. They take it over.
They don't just inspire. They build.
They build institutions, candidate pipelines, think tanks, and enforcement mechanisms that ensure power flows toward them, no matter who wins the next election.
That's why, even though the majority of Americans support progressive policies, those policies never get passed.
That's why Bernie—despite changing the conversation—never changed the power structure.
Oligarchy is Here. We're Just Watching.
Trump, Musk, and the billionaire class aren't consolidating power in secret.
They're doing it in broad daylight.
The Supreme Court is owned. Congress is gridlocked. The media is fractured and captured.
And what is our side doing? Holding more rallies? Hoping a few more town halls will be enough?
When Chuck Schumer caved on the latest spending bill, we needed a coordinated progressive response - not just from individual lawmakers who are already fighting daily battles within Congress, but from a powerful external movement infrastructure that could mount primary challenges and hold Democratic leadership accountable.
That kind of coordinated progressive power structure doesn't exist.
Individual progressive representatives can only do so much from inside the system. They need external leverage to truly change the power dynamics.
We Don't Even Have an Alternative
The progressive movement isn't just lacking infrastructure—it's failing to offer a comprehensive alternative vision for government.
Right now, the entire spectrum of the Democratic Party runs from:
"Free Market Capitalism With No Rules" to
"Free Market Capitalism With A Lot of Rules."
No one is talking about something different.
No one is talking about how we built the New York City subway with a city-owned company. How the government took over factories in WWII to produce war machines. How DARPA, NASA, and public investment created the tech boom that Musk and Bezos cashed in on.
Instead, even our most progressive voices often limit their critiques of capitalism to regulatory frameworks rather than presenting a vision where government actively builds and creates.
The alternative isn't just more regulation.
It's a government that actually builds.
What Real Power Would Look Like
The progressive movement has demonstrated it can raise significant money when motivated. AOC's campaign showed the power of grassroots fundraising by raising $20 million for a House race in a single cycle without corporate PAC money. Bernie raised over $250 million in his presidential runs from small-dollar donors.
They've proven they can raise money. They've proven they can mobilize people. They've proven they can generate energy and excitement.
But they only flex this muscle during election cycles, which is madness.
Real progressive power would look like:
A year-round operation that doesn't disappear between elections
A candidate recruitment and training pipeline that identifies and prepares progressives to run for office at every level
A media arm that competes with right-wing outlets and shapes the narrative
A fundraising apparatus that rivals AIPAC and the Koch network
Policy shops that write model legislation like ALEC does
Legal organizations that fight for voting rights and challenge corporate power
Leadership development programs that prepare the next generation
This isn't impossible. The resources are there. The talent is there. The money is there.
What's missing is the will to build something that lasts beyond a news cycle or a campaign.
If Not Them, Who?
Bernie could turn this tour into the foundation of an actual political machine.
The progressive movement - not just Bernie or individual lawmakers who already have their hands full fighting within the system - needs to build infrastructure to identify and support candidates who can replace obstructionist Democrats.
This is bigger than any individual. It requires an ecosystem of organizations working in concert, with dedicated funding and professional staff.
Why? Fear of Democratic leadership? A belief that power should be purely bottom-up? I don't know.
But I do know this:
We can't afford to wait for them to change.
The lesson of the past decade is clear:
Progressives win when we build. We lose when we just inspire.
Bernie and AOC's call to action is for people to get involved.
But involved in what?
Right now, there is no alternative.
If we want one, we have to build it.
Because waiting isn't a strategy.
It's surrender.
Great article.
We protest with pink hats; they protest with AK47s.
Harris ran an excellent campaign, but she was running a campaign and they were fighting a war.
They are willing to go scorched earth; we are not.
They are unbound by the law; we are hobbled by it.
For them, winning is everything, even if they can’t govern. For us, governing is everything even if we can’t win. (Failing to realize that if you don’t win you can’t govern.)
Bernie is awesome, but we need someone young, someone who comes from outside politics who isn’t shackled to the “inside game.” Someone like, dare I say, you know who. And yes we need to build systems that ensure we hold power. We need our own project 2025.
What about practical solution or actions. You clearly identified the problem, but didn't propose any real world solutions except in very general terms. We've had enough of that. Time to propose actions that can make a difference. Raise money from wealthy Independents and Democrats like Buffet to make a difference.