Wednesday, March 1, 2017

We Will Never Get Over It


Establishment Democrats, I've got some bad news: Bernie Sanders supporters will never get over what happened last year.

Since the end of the primaries, in every way and from every level of rank within the Clinton cabal, we've been told that we need to quit whining and get behind the camp that won. And no matter that I ultimately obeyed them to an extent by advocating for voting for Hillary Clinton in swing states and Jill Stein in non-swing states; in all other respects, I haven't conceded to the Democratic establishment an inch. And neither have virtually all other Sandersists, with nearly half of Democrats, most of whom are no doubt Sanders supporters, now not feeling represented by their party. The fact that the neoliberal Democrats narrowly win the title of the lesser evil doesn't entitle them to the loyalty or even respect of me and the other Sanders supporters, and in this piece I'm going to articulate why this is the case.

There are probably countless good reasons for Sanders supporters not to align themselves with the Democratic establishment. The incredible condescension and hostility that was directed towards us by Hillary Clinton's many allies in the press; the DNC's attempts to undermine our candidate; the saga of ways corporate Democrats have undermined our agenda throughout not just the 2016 primaries but for the last several decades. But out of them all, there are two that work as conclusive deal-breakers.

The first one is the rigging that took place in the primaries. This issue has been ignored and dismissed so much by the corporate media that even many Sanders supporters themselves don't seem to be aware of it, but it's very real. What I'm talking about is the fact that even with the efforts from the DNC and the major media to hurt Sanders' campaign, he would have won the primaries in a landslide were it not for the efforts from overzealous pro-Clinton state party and state government officials to directly rig the primary contests in favor of their candidate.

Consider the following scenario: it's the beginning of February in 2016, and Bernie Sanders has just narrowly defeated Hilary Clinton in the Iowa caucuses. In this alternate reality, the Iowa Democratic Party hasn't very likely stolen the contest from Sanders through a series of autocratic "re-staged" vote counts, arbitrary coin flips, and then a strange refusal to disclose the exact vote count. As result Sanders, who was only around twelve points behind before the Iowa vote, quickly jumps to a near tie with Clinton in an average of polls. After he's also won the contests in New Hampshire and Nevada (the latter of which hasn't been slanted towards Clinton by the backroom deals of Harry Reid in this scenario) Sanders is narrowly in the lead.

The only thing that saves Clinton in this scenario from early obliteration are her large victories in all of the southern states, the contests of which were all scheduled for the first half of March. But Sanders manages to keep the race very close during this period through his substantial victories in Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Michigan, and Missouri (all of which haven't experienced statistically impossible vote model irregularities in this reality). After that, it's almost all uphill for Sanders. While fairly far behind in pledged delegates and national polls following Clinton's many victories in the contests from March 1 to March 15, by the end of the month he's established a firm national lead and reduced his delegate deficit from the hundreds to the dozens. He's able to do this by winning every single state since the middle of March due to how, in this scenario, Arizona's March 22 contest wasn't fraught with massive voter suppression.

By the end of April, Sanders is both leading in every national poll and narrowly leading in pledged delegates because the New York Democratic primary wasn't mired with massive voter suppression and electoral fraud, and because his margin of victory in Rhode Island wasn't reduced by many instances of closed polling locations. By the end of May, Sanders is by far the frontrunner in national polls and pledged delegates, and is close to becoming the frontrunner in superdelegates, because in this scenario many of the polling places in Indiana weren't closed before the state's primary, the Nevada Democratic caucus wasn't run in a way which deliberately shut out dozens of Sanders delegates, and thousands of votes in the Kentucky and Oregon Democratic primaries weren't mysteriously lost. By the end of the primaries in June, Sanders is sure to be the nominee because the contests in Puerto Rico and California weren't very likely stolen from him through  staggering amounts of voter suppression. He then, as we all know, defeated Trump in an epic landslide.

For every Sanders supporter, the fact that this didn't take place because of the actions of the Democratic establishment is of course too awful to forgive. What's far worse for not just Sanders supporters but everyone else, though, and the second big reason we will never get over what happened last year, are the ultimate consequences of this subtle coup against Sanders.

There are numerous reasons clear to anyone who's paying attention to the dynamics at work in the world for why the theft of Sanders' presidency was a very bad move for the Democratic elite to make. There's the prospect we're facing under a Trump presidency of exponentially increased risk of terror attacks against the U.S. and the geopolitical catastrophes that those attacks are sure to set off, in contrast to the peaceful foreign policy future America would be entering into were Sanders allowed to become president. There's the prospect of the Trump administration staging a fascist takeover following those attacks in contrast to the era of benevolent government behavior that Sanders would create. But by far the worst thing that's coming about because of Sanders' so-called loss, as Caitlin Johnstone wrote right before the primaries ended, is the climatic effect of Sanders' absence from the White House:
Bernie Sanders is the only candidate who has placed mitigating climate change front and center of his platform. He is the only one whose policy is strong enough to save us, and the only one with a voting record that backs up his commitment to enacting it in full.
A vote for anyone else is a vote for the end of your species. If a few years from now, you can look your kids in the eye as they fight wars for water and run from one natural disaster to the next, if you can look them in the eye and tell them “I voted for this, I put saving some billionaire’s share portfolio ahead of your health and safety,” then go right ahead. Your choice. Our children may be fighting for their lives in exactly the same way, but at least my conscience will be clear.
It will be bitter consolation, though. I’d rather them be thriving together in a new age of peace and safety than me having the grim satisfaction of an empty “I told you so.”
Look mom, no future.

Well, that's not necessarily going to be the case. Even as the earth's average temperature drifts very close to the dangerous two-degrees-above-the-pre-industrial-average mark, there's hope yet for the climate as the majority of Americans who acknowledge climate change work feverishly to transform our energy system through for now purely bottom-up activism. And while we can't do much to stop the geopolitical crises that the Trump administration is on track for creating, we can stop its coming attacks on democracy if we play our cards right. Indeed, the people themselves have just as much or more potential than a President Sanders would have to set history on a new course. And Caitlin Johnstone herself, in spite of the fatalistic tone of the article above, believes this.

Still, while Bernie's revolution could very well bring about massive amounts of change to the world in these next few years, grievous harm is also likely to be done as a result of what the Democratic establishment did last year. As John Sanbonmatsu wrote days before the pivotal 2016 New York primary: "This is not a normal election year. It’s the end game. It is a crisis, in the original sense of the ancient Greek word, krisis — the turning point in an illness when a patient either dies, or recovers. Except that the patient, in this case, is both the American body politic and the living earth itself." And in the coming years, it will become clear which choice establishment Democrats made when faced with that crossroads, along with why we will never get over it.

17 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. set history on a new coarse. should be course ;-)

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  3. Not all of us. I'm not gonna be responsible for putting innocent Americans under permanent rule of a fascist racist regime because of impatience. The left is history if they win again in 2020, so is the progressive platform. I went against Bernie's advice in 2016. Won't be doing it in 2020. He was right.

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  4. We need a non-partisan revolution against corruption across the country to fix this mess. They will keep rigging elections because they don't want to give up dark money influence nor do the lobbyists in the party want to give up their positions. We've got to force them to with something like the American anti-corruption Act. It will kill citizens United, get dark money influence out of our government so that it serves the American people instead of wealthy elites, corporations and big Banks. It will also help to fix our broken electoral process. The msm has been proven to be an arm of the corrupted establishment. We need to break up the monopoly on our Mass media and demand a return of true investigative journalism and journalistic integrity. We cannot allow a two tiered system of justice. One for the average American and another for the wealthy and we'll connected. These aren't radical things to demand . These are all our constitutional rights. Our right to a free Press. Our right to free and FAIR election. We've got to be able to depend on these things or we've got no democracy, we've got no Republic. Wake up . This is far and away beyond party politics. There's no president in the world who can make all those changes alone. There's not one group or party to do it alone . We need to unite , if we do this , we will win. We must win.

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    1. We need to rally together rather than picking and choosing our particular cause. We need to support the Constitution and remove the elite that our Fore Fathers feared would take over this Country as they have. Instead of Marching as one group embrace the cause of justice and stand up for one another. No one in this Great Country should be discriminated against, go hungry or homeless and without medical care. Unite all people with a conscious and we are a lot stronger than they are.

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  5. Thank you for this. I don't know how many times I have said, "I will never get over it."
    It was absolutely a turning point. We had the good choice, but somehow we humans almost always put greed and petty grievances ahead of what is good. Historians will look back at this election as the point where we could have steered this country and planet on the right course but we chose not to. I probably won't be alive when we are slitting each other's throats for a thimble full of water, but I fought on the side of good.

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  6. Thank you for this. I don't know how many times I have said, "I will never get over it."
    It was absolutely a turning point. We had the good choice, but somehow we humans almost always put greed and petty grievances ahead of what is good. Historians will look back at this election as the point where we could have steered this country and planet on the right course but we chose not to. I probably won't be alive when we are slitting each other's throats for a thimble full of water, but I fought on the side of good.

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  7. Thank you for this. I don't know how many times I have said, "I will never get over it."
    It was absolutely a turning point. We had the good choice, but somehow we humans almost always put greed and petty grievances ahead of what is good. Historians will look back at this election as the point where we could have steered this country and planet on the right course but we chose not to. I probably won't be alive when we are slitting each other's throats for a thimble full of water, but I fought on the side of good.

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  8. wait a minute...sanders was narrowly beaten by clinton in iowa causcuses...you've got that wrong. and, according to all other polls, at the time, yes, he had the momentum but, did he actually have the votes? he went into DNC at 53%....well above billary...and yes, he should've had the nomination...but he knew they'd screw him and...they did. he exposed them for who and what they are! that's what you need to be writing about! that's why ellison didn't get the nomination...he's a sanders guy...who sits next to DWS...ew.

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  9. i had unique personal experiences at IOWA DNC because of my outspoken-ness...i won't bother mentioning them here. i had unique personal experiences in my county meetings...i won't mention them here. all that raised red flags, so when i went into the IDNC convention, i knew that i was #demexiting as soon as i left the building. NEVER is a very long time...which is exactly what i plan. Our family gave the local dems a pearl to meet in, whenever they needed it. that's over. 14 million demexiters last year following the lies of billary and her cronies...if that's a correct number...no wonder they're slippin' on their own shit!

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  10. You should start publicising the movements to construct a replacement for the void the dems left.

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    1. Why? Rainier is a communist, as am i.

      electoral politics in the US and UK, are simply a cover.

      If an honest Labour or Socialist party start gaining ground, do you think they will not cheat them?

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  11. We We As Americans have to be very very careful going forward that this Administration does not destroy the Constitution. And I don't just mean the laws of the Constitution I mean the actual document itself

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  12. You should be ashamed for voting for Killery in the swing states as well. That's a cop-out!

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  13. In Texas you don't "register as Democrat or Republican" - it depends on how you vote. If you vote the straight Democratic ticket you are "registered" as a Democrat for two years. (That's until the next election.) Then you're "registered" as whatever you vote for in that mid-term. I don't know how you could possibly count how many people participated in the "Demexit" movement under those circumstances. Not possible. In the 2016 election, a lot of people voted for Clinton in order to vote against trump. That would count their votes as Democrat votes when they were more like protest votes. We need some reasonable standards, nationally, to clarify all this.

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  14. Thanks for this look back at the 2016 election ... which to me felt a lot like a battle between the forces of light and the forces of darkness ... and, because darkness is darkness, they cheated, so now we have Trump.

    On the other hand, the people seem to be waking up and paying attention now to their elected officials and what it is they're doing, which is why many of these politicians are ducking and dodging their constituents, because they know they're going to be questioned hard about the things they have been voting into law ... or how it appears that their vote for some bills appear to have been prompted by a check from an affected industry, so that's something.

    In the meantime, here's hoping that Trump just gets bored and decides to quit. I don't know if there's a way to have a "Do-Over" election, but we could sure use one -- though those rigged voting machines need to be replaced, of course.

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  15. Thanks for this opinion piece. I, too, will never get over it, but I couldn't bring myself to vote for Clinton, even though she would have been a better President than that narcissistic idiot we have now. I voted for Jill Stein because the Green Party's issues were, and still are, the same as Bernie's, so I voted my conscience. If we all strive to make the Green Party a viable third party, we don't have to worry about neo-liberal, corporate Democrats and how they screwed Bernie's chances of becoming President. The Green Party has been in existence for decades, but they need more candidates to run in local & state offices, more funding from the public, and more press. Bernie was invited to be the Green Party's candidate by Jill Stein, but he refused because he still thinks the Democratic Party can be changed from within. But none of the establishment Democratic Congress members are budging -- they have adopted some progressive proposals, but they still take campaign donations from Wall St. and large corporations. As long as that continues, we will NOT have a Democratic Party that represents the PEOPLE.

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