The Right Builds Power. The Left Hosts Rallies. That's Why We Lose.

Lessons from a Former Bernie Organizer and AOC Staffer

By Corbin Trent, America’s Undoing

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.