by kara on July 10, 2016

“They won’t mention that the most ruthless campaign of paid hatred in American political history started when Hillary Clinton rallied to reform health care in 1989. And that enjoining that hatred remains an act of solidarity with the founding legacy of Fox News.”

via dailycaller

Bernie, Berners go Bust

By Michael Dannerbeck

20160709__10DCIN4w~1

Sanders speaks during a June 14 news conference outside his campaign headquarters in Washington. (Alex Brandon / AP)
“It’s a hard rain that’s gonna fall.”

— Bob Dylan

This summer the Democratic Party will give Bernie Sanders a stand-offish hug goodbye. They will praise him for his activism and watch him bask in the blue-hued lights of the convention and wag his finger at America one last time.

There will be a mix of respectful applause and, obviously, unscheduled outbursts from his fans. His vilified rivals, who defeated him by every measure of democratic process, will wait politely for his exit. The mainstream will remain civil, if tight lipped, as the disruptive tumult that defines Bernie Sanders rises to a clamor, then fades one last time. They will leave him alone in that great dance hall of history until every clap condenses into a tear and the adulation settles a hammering din that fades like windless rain at dusk. They will give him that.

 

But no more.

They won’t complain that he used the “mainstream” party as a free buffet of national political infrastructure. They won’t mention that Bernie discounted the organization of President Clinton and President Obama as a cheap tool box overflowing with the product of other people’s labor. Tools he looted, then used to gut-job the party.

They won’t mention what he left steaming in the box.

They will allow him a coda of red faced “passion.” And he might use it to further blame not just the party’s mainstream but America’s main street itself for stealing his political capital. Capital he earned, not by being the most competent Democrat but by being the most old, white and male. Unlike his followers, they will not interrupt his speech.

They won’t mention that the most ruthless campaign of paid hatred in American political history started when Hillary Clinton rallied to reform health care in 1989. And that enjoining that hatred remains an act of solidarity with the founding legacy of Fox News.

They will intone that Bernie pulled them leftward (and that this helps Democrat’s electoral reality). But they will also drop code words to remind broader audiences that while being as equally far from perfect as any campaign in the field, they are uniquely far from crazy — terms like “realistic” or even “fiduciary.” They won’t mention that the mainstream party Bernie attacked remains the only thing standing between the Koch Brothers and ownership of all three branches of government.

Alas, they won’t change the delegate system. But they also won’t mention that Bernie almost proved a buffered delegate system is justified. They certainly won’t point, out as an aside, that if the GOP had a super delegate air bag system on their bus they wouldn’t be watching themselves go through the windshield right now.

Bernie Sanders’ revolution was not a case of too little too late, it was a cause that was too small minded and too impulsive. The proof is in his lack of acumen at the end game of his campaign. He had a moment that offered him serious political capital, but he tempestuously refused to cash his chips and now the table has closed out. The Democratic Party was there before he joined it last year, and it will be there after he goes. He exits as an incredibly shrinking man.

The brutal truth is that while the Democratic Party welcomes Bernie’s kids it doesn’t need them. The GOP has become its own defeat.

The “mainstream” exists for a reason, and that reason is called the real world. In the real world, leaders leave room to lose elections (and in Democracy they owe a duty to take it like a grown up). Professionals never wager everything on the little patch of green felt that reads: “Victory or Bust.” Bernie Sanders rejected this adage. He extended his defeat until he had nothing left to pawn. He has a gentle stink about him now. He is old, so it makes sense that he did not save any art of war for the future. Still, just as he made his supporters relevant by their anger, he made them irrelevant by his own. He squandered the moment he created.

Bernie raised a legion then slammed their entire stake against an “all-in” spin for personal glory. He put 22 million votes of political coin on “Bernie or Bust.” But there’s only two sprockets on that wheel.

They won’t rub it in at the convention, but they won’t pretend that he won.

Michael Dannerbeck lives in Boulder.

Previous post:

Next post: