I’ve watched Bernie Sanders longer than he’s been running for President. Whenever I saw him on television, the few times that I did, he always clicked for me. In 2002, in the lead-up to the Iraq War, he was a clear voice against the war and stood in solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of people who were protesting worldwide against the the march towards war. Plainly put, Bernie Sanders was the kind of person who always seemed to be on my side.
With good reason. I’ve never really considered myself a Democrat, but a democratic socialist, my entire left-wing life (after a brief Libertarian stretch in high school). I grew up the kind of life in which politics impacted me greatly but I was too busy surviving to care what platitudes and empty promises politicians had. To be honest, poverty seems to have a way of depoliticizing people, because when your life is one lurch of a crisis to the next, voting isn’t something that seems to have much impact. After the Bush years with the overt doublespeak and double-think I found myself increasingly pushed away from traditional political avenues. This aversion to political rhetoric made me vote against Kerry (for Nader) in 2004, but mostly because Kerry voted for the Iraq War.
So for me, there’s a kind of kinship with Sanders I feel. I can actually say I love the guy, which is a strange situation to find myself in given he’s a politician. I find him genuinely funny, insightful, and intelligent in a way I wish more politicians were. If anything, I get a strong sense he is a public servant in the truest sense of the word.
So it is with love that I write this diary. I don’t intend this to be defeatist, because the race isn’t over yet, but at the very least this mistake of Senator Sanders made his job harder, if not cost him the nomination. Some caveats: I understand this is a Democratic website intended to elect Democrats and I tend to vote for Democrats when applicable, if they meet my criteria for my vote. Namely, votes for the PATRIOT ACT and the Authorization to Use Military Force are deal breakers for me. I must admit I don’t have an implicit trust for the Democratic Party given the realities of the Bush years. 2004 was the first year I could actually vote in the Presidential election and I couldn’t bring myself to vote for Kerry.
With all of this in mind Bernie’s biggest blunder of the 2016 race was running as a Democrat.
Very early on the race, before the media really picked up on Senator Sanders 2016 run, he hinted at a possible run for the White House. One topic he was very open about was whether he’d run as an Independent or as a Democrat and under what conditions he’d run. Ultimately he decided not to:
“No matter what I do, I will not be a spoiler,” Sanders said. “I will not play that role in helping to elect some right-wing Republican as President of the United States.”
Therein lies the big gamble. He was very cautious about being a spoil and the task of building a voting coalition as an Independent wasn’t certain enough that he felt he could outright win. Instead, as we all know, he decided to run within the Democratic Party. That’s when the trouble began.
The Democratic Party is well insulated against outsiders, it turns out, and the party will attack an outsider as a foreign body. For all intents and purposes, Sanders is attempting to do partially what Jeremy Corbyn did in the UK, which is to flood the left-wing party with new members and energy. However, the Democratic Party is having none of that.
Claire McCaskill red-baited Sanders several times. Clinton positioned herself as the pragmatic alternative to a radical outsider. The mass media generally ignored Sanders. Still, the fight was a lot closer and tougher than any of them thought it could be.
Then came the “Berniebros” myth and attacks on supporters of Sanders. They were maligned as monolithic, sexist, and racist. They were told they were shooting for unrealistic goals. They were told they wouldn’t nominate someone who could win in November. They were told they were being promised things that couldn’t be delivered. Another way of saying supporters were being duped. In short, the media, the pundits, the papers, and diarists and commentators here all found ways to attack the candidate by attacking the supporters, which is about as a low blow one can go in politics.
Further, the Democratic Party has an unfair and undemocratic nomination process. The super delegate and delegate designations point to something undemocratic at the core of the party itself (which goes to show how parties often operate internally). In fact, it struck me that pledged delegates were akin to the House of Commons in the UK, and the super delegates are akin to the House of Lords. Super delegates simply exist as a nomination vote by fiat of their past party loyalty.
I suppose as someone who came to political age when Republicans were running to the right and Democrats were chasing them (2000 and beyond) I’ve gotten used to being disappointed by Democrats. It would appear that in 2016 Democrats are cagey and on the defensive after 8 years of Obama with his deportations, drone strikes, and inability to address inequality. It’s just a shame that their fear is keeping them from seizing a truly unique moment.
Bernie’s biggest blunder was thinking the Democratic Party had the spine to actually fight back. Looks like there’ll be more deference to the status quo for awhile longer. I’m not going to stick around and wait to see where this leads because there’s real issues closer to the ground that warrant attention.
