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Editor's Note: Jeff Weaver, a longtime assistant to Senator Bernie Sanders and campaign manager for the 2016 Sanders presidential nomination, is the leader of "Future to Believe In (FTBI) PAC," a new political group to support the candidate. Democratic presidential Joe Biden and lobby for more progressive policies. The opinions expressed here are those of the writer. Read more opinion pieces at CNNe.cm/opinion
(CNN) - As progressives debate their role in the upcoming general elections, they must consider what our movement has achieved in a very short time and why, at this moment, we must take advantage of our advantage and not abandon the people we represent, working people, middle-income people, poor and marginalized communities.
The millions of Bernie Sanders volunteers, supporters, donors and voters demonstrated the breadth of our movement that is stretching the limits of acceptable political debate in this country. As Bernie himself has pointed out, ideas like "Medicare for All" and Jobs for All, which only a few years ago would have been radical, now have the support of the American people. Our work has been so successful that the Democratic Party and even Bernie's main opponents adopted policies such as a $ 15 hourly minimum wage and free public college tuition.
We made that happen. We create policies that benefit ordinary people again. We effectively deliver, and will continue to deliver, a hopeful new vision for our country. My good friend, Senator Nina Turner, uses a quote from the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan that sums up the vision we offer: "A United States as good as its promise."
Sanders' candidacy was always about accelerating our path to that "America as good as it promised" by institutionalizing as much progressive change in the law as could be achieved if he became president. Just as Republicans have spent decades trying unsuccessfully to destroy Social Security and "Medicare," they would also spend decades trying to undo President Sanders' plans for college for all, "Medicare for all," and the rest.
Now we have come to the place where Bernie is not going to be president. I wish I could convey how deeply it hurts me to write it. But that's where we are. We can spend a lot of time obsessed with the injustice of the process during the last two primary cycles, the role of money, the advantages of the establishment and the fearlessness of much of the media. All that is true. And that? Who in our movement ever thought that the ruling class was going to turn around? Progressive politics is not for the faint of heart.
Nor is it a debating society. They are not the Olympic Games of "who is holier than you". It is organizing to achieve real and positive change in the lives of the people we represent. It is not about being right. It is about achieving what is right for the right people. People who, in Sanders's words, too often "humiliate and push." That is why so many people worked, donated, and voted for Bernie's campaign to improve the lives of ordinary people.
As our movement moves the Democratic Party and much of the nation in our direction through our blood, our sweat, and, all too often in recent days, our tears, we must be good stewards of the political influence that has so often We make an effort to benefit the people who matter to us.
I don't know anyone who thinks Joe Biden will be as far to the left as president as Sanders. But after all the work that progressives have done together, knocking on all those doors, making all those calls, making all the small donations, the supporters of our movement deserve to enjoy the success of their efforts so far. Will the changes we see in the short term be incremental? Of course they will (although it is our mutual responsibility to make them as expansive as possible). But that increase will be an improvement in the lives of real people that comes directly from the organization we have made.
Does this mean that we must support a bottom-up approach to change? Absolutely not. We will all continue to drive a transformative agenda for change and fight for candidates who do. I know this position will be controversial for some, as will the decision to use a super PAC as a vehicle for this endeavor. Senator Sanders himself does not approve of this vehicle. But a real improvement in people's lives right now is possible. Therefore, we must all deliver it in the most effective way with which we feel comfortable.
Otherwise, how can we look at the single mother Bernie and I met in Iowa, who made $ 8.00 an hour, if we sit at home because we don't want to pull on the lever of Joe Biden, who supports a Minimum wage of $ 15? Why do our ideological sensibilities mean something to her and her children if they cannot afford housing, medicine or food? Where is our moral position to ask her or someone like her to support us in the next campaign?
How do we explain to the 60-year-old service worker who does not have health insurance that we could have given her access to "Medicare" (not an acquired one, but access like those who are now 65)? Should it matter to us that we are so committed to "Medicare for All" that we would not endorse a candidate who would make "Medicare" available only to an additional 40 million people over the course of a single term? Why should people trust progressives to protect their interests in the future if we fail to deliver when we have the opportunity now?
Right now, we must work as hard as we can to ensure as much as we can for the people whose interests defend our movement: the poor and marginalized, working families and the middle class. That does not mean that none of these changes go far enough or that our work is done. Far from there. We will keep pushing. We will continue organizing. We will continue building. It's not about Joe, Bernie, or any of us. It's about all of us. It is about meeting people's needs so that together we can create that United States as good as it promises. That won't happen sitting on the sidelines with your arms crossed.
Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden