hree Times When the World Broke Open -- and Two When It Might Again

Three Times When the World Broke Open -- and Two When It Might Again
In Praise of Impractical Movements
By Mark Engler and Paul Engler
Bernie Sanders's insurgent presidential campaign has opened up a debate about how social change happens in our society. The official version of how progress is won -- currently voiced by mainstream pundits and members of a spooked Democratic Party establishment -- goes something like this: politics is a tricky business, gains coming through the work of pragmatic insiders who know how to maneuver within the system. In order to get things done, you have to play the game, be realistic, and accept the established limits of debate in Washington, D.C.
A recent article in the Atlantic summed up this perspective with the tagline, "At this polarized moment, it's incremental change or nothing." This view, however, leaves out a critical driver of social transformation. It fails to account for what might be the most important engine of progress: grassroots movements by citizens demanding change.
Click here to read more of this dispatch.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176111/tomgram%3A_engler%2C_the_transformative_power_of_democratic_uprisings/#more