Earlier today Illinibeatle wrote a great diary about the “War on Bernie Sanders” by the Democratic establishment. I couldn’t agree more with that diary, and just wanted to add my two cents.
In my opinion, in its efforts to stop Sanders, the Democratic establishment is seriously jeopardizing the chances of success by Democrats in the next decade. The fact that Sanders is getting at least 35% nationally despite (until few weeks ago) lack of media coverage shows that a substantial number of Democrats are simply not happy with the incrementalist approach of Clinton and Sanders’ populist message is obviously appealing to a large group of potential voters.
As Van Jones astutely commented “ something extraordinary is happening here; there is a full-on rebellion at the grassroots level of the Democratic Party.” http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnns-van-jones-democratic-base-in-full-on-rebellion-against-hillary-clinton/
By the entire Democratic establishment blatantly taking sides, it is basically telling the Sanders voters that: (1) their individual preferences don’t matter because the Democratic elites know better and they prefer Clinton; and (2) many of the policies which these voters back and which is why they support Sanders in the first place (single-payer, breaking up the banks) are NEVER going to be implemented because they are unrealistic.
In my opinion, THIS IS IDIOTIC. Again, Sanders is not a fringe Kucinich-type candidate who is getting 1-3%. At the very least, a third of the party supports Sanders DESPITE all the Clinton advantages and the establishment being against him. SO WHY ON EARTH WOULD THE PARTY ANTAGONIZE THIS LARGE BLOCK OF VOTERS? How does the party think Sanders’ supporters would react to Pelosi stating
He's talking about a single-payer, and that's not going to happen. I mean, does anybody in this room think that we're going to be discussing a single-payer? I've been for single-payer for 30 years, and it is a very popular idea in our country. But we have made a decision about where we're going on healthcare.
So in other words, it doesn’t matter what the voters think — the “leaders” already decided that this issue is never even going to be discussed!
Just to be clear, I do not think the party should be FOR Sanders either. Instead, the establishment should have stayed NEUTRAL and thrown its support to whomever the actual voters prefer AFTER THE ACTUAL ELECTIONS. That way, if Sanders would still lose, his supporters would at least think that he lost fair and square, and would not feel that they the party does not represent them. As it is, many Sanders’ supporters (myself included) feel that they have no place in the current party, as it is actively fighting them and dismisses their policy preferences outright.
Its no secret that the biggest reason Democrats lose elections is because many people are too disillusioned to vote and stay home. By taking sides so blatantly, the Democratic establishment is ensuring that this will happen in the next election — at least a large percentage of Sanders voters will stay home, which of course will jeopardize Clinton’s chance of being elected and kill any chance of Democrats retaking Congress. And after being sent this message from the establishment, some progressive voters will lose all hope in the party EVER giving them a fair shake and might decide to not participate in the future elections to come as well.
I AM SURE THE DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP KNOWS THIS AND IS WILLINGLY TAKING THIS RISK. The fact that the party prefers risking defeat in elections to having Sanders as the nominee speaks volumes.