June 6, 2016

We’re Live-Tweeting Bernie Sanders’ Coachella

The campaign’s last dance (or is it?) in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders and his wife Jane Sanders arrive at a campaign rally in San Francisco.Noah Berger/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


My parents’ first date was a George McGovern political rally. And if that strikes you as strange, well, you probably are not a Bernie Sanders supporter.

In San Francisco this evening, thousands of young Berners are gathering on a grassy field next to the Golden Gate bridge for a political love fest featuring acts such as Fishbone, Fantastic Negrito, and the Dave Matthews Band—not to mention Hollywood celebrities, lefty intellectuals, and one wild-haired democratic socialist. Officially, it’s the Sanders campaign’s A Future To Believe In GOTV Concert. Unofficially, it could be an epic last hurrah, the sort of thing that gets mentioned to the kids decades later—like Woodstock!—to prove you actually did something in your 20s besides sit on your ass and smoke pot.

Not that there won’t be joints and vape pens—maybe oil rigs. But you get the point: This isn’t a regular political campaign, it’s a “revolution,” and revolutions come with their own culture. Like Feeling the Bern. Or wading through the Bernie Sanders Dank Meme Stash. Or wearing an adult-sized Bernie onesie. Or joining the Bernie Love Wave. There has not been a campaign like this in America, since, well, Matt Gonzales ran for mayor of San Francisco. And I mean that in the best possible way. A Bernie Sanders get-out-the-vote concert in this town is not something you want to miss.

And you don’t have to, because we’ll be live-tweeting the event and posting updates here for as long as our batteries last. So check back regularly to get your Bern on from the comfort of your living room sofa—which is probably filled with nasty flame retardants. (Now if Bernie were president…)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate