I've been thinking about this point for a while now, but today's incident with the DNC really kind of seals its importance, at least as far as I see it.

In the debates and interviews, I've often seen Sanders asked "How do you think you can win this election?" To which his response is something to the effect of "I will lead a political revolution." But something has always bothered me about this construction. I think it's actually a bit backwards. If Sanders, or a candidate like him, can be elected, the revolution will have already happened. Maybe it's happening right now, I can't tell until actual elections are held. But it hasn't happened before now either.

What, politically, has been happening in our country? For the young and the poor (who often overlap), the cost of voting (the time cost associated) has been perhaps too high, and the sense that it matters too low. Perhaps especially true in cities where (I imagine, at least) there may be more people per polling station, leading to longer lines and higher costs.

As such, the Republicans have very consistently gotten their demographic (older and whiter) out to the polls in off years. They won state legislatures that allowed them to redistrict to their advantage, they won national legislators that brought our entire government to a halt in recent years. But when the stakes are "high enough" (ie, presidential elections), the Dems seem to turn out in bigger numbers.

Some of this is the party's own doing. I'm in Maryland which is supposed to be a pretty solid blue state, but the complete apathy about the D governor candidate last cycle meant the state voted a Republican governor. While it is obviously a bit of selection bias, I feel like this is part of a broader DNC problem. The party seems to take votes for granted. And I think they're doing it again with Clinton. Just assuming the standard Democrats will show up to vote for the standard Democrat and win the race on favorable demographics alone.

But I think there's hope; this year is the first in which there are more Millenials in the US than Baby Boomers. If all of the people from both demographic voted, the Millenial voice would at least be comparable to the Boomers'. And we see this kind of passion in the Sanders' campaign.

Can we deliver the revolution needed? I don't know. I'm not even entirely sure how important it is. The real important game is down ticket and the years to come. Whether Sanders wins this primary, this general election will be an interesting twist in an historical arc. But there needs to be as much effort to drive the young people excited for Bernie out to vote for candidates who would help him do the things he wants to get done.

And that's going to mean the DNC putting forward interesting candidates, making an effort to get people engaged and interested and showing up even if they're "only" voting for their state representative. It's going to mean the DNC has to back away from the rest-on-favourable demos stance it has and actually try. How they handle the situation with Sanders now may be a good weathervane of how interested they are in creating this kind of future for the party.