Sanders lists his convention demands, but where’s his ‘Or else’ leverage?
A third-party run would rock the DNC, but it fits Sanders’ definition of leadership
“What are the Democratic establishment going to do for us?”
With that one Heisenberg-flavored quote, on Wednesday Bernie Sanders for the first time allowed himself be drawn into a “what if you lose the primary” scenario, thanks to deft questioning by progressive media darling Cenk Uygur of Young Turks. And since demands aren’t demands without leverage, we can infer that a third-party run is at least theoretically on the table.
The gist of Uygur’s question, paraphrased, was ‘Once you’ve led people down the path to political revolution, can you really ask them to turn around, hold their noses and vote for the establishment?’
While insisting he’s still “in it to win it” Sanders said that if he were to lose, he would come to the convention demanding that Democrats fight for basically his entire progressive platform:
- a Medicare for all single payer health care system,
- 15 “bucks an hour” minimum wage
- to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure
- a vigorous effort to address climate change
- making public colleges and universities tuition-free
So those are the demands. But what if the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton don’t agree to them? What are Sanders’ options?
Running third party, at first glance, seems problematic: Sanders has already said he’ll support Clinton in the fall, so changing his mind now would be a shocking flip-flop for Sanders, a politician marked by nothing if not constancy.
It would, however, fit the definition of leadership Sanders uses in his stump speech: “having the courage to do the right thing now even when it’s not popular.” He’s been raising millions and raising hope by saying nothing less than a political revolution will be required to fix our corrupt campaign finance system and to unjam scores of pressing issues that can’t realistically wait, like climate change, the minimum wage, and comprehensive immigration reform.
Doesn’t Sanders owe it to us to stay in the race if there is a reasonable chance he would win — even if it’s messy, or uncertain — and even if, in losing, Trump manages to win? It seems to me that sometimes shit will happen in a revolution.
Sanders’ “unlikely voters” should organize together to form the Progressive Party, and be prepared to gather the required signatures (or pay the money) to get Sanders on state ballots nationwide in November. No independent candidate in the history of this country will ever have a better chance than Sanders has right now to break the two-party vice grip Democrats and Republicans have held on our politics. If his campaign is able to demonstrate strength in New York and California the case for an independent run gets better and better.
Should Donald Trump be the GOP nominee, he’ll be the weakest gift of a threat possibly ever. Sanders does well against Trump in head-to-head polling, especially with white men, who are already unenthusiastic about Clinton.
I could easily see the results of a three-way race going: Sanders, Trump, Clinton.
In a public tweet yesterday, I suggested to Cenk Uygur that The Young Turks commission a three-way general election poll so that we can have more information as our campaign (Not Me, Us, right?) to make decisions moving forward. Perhaps Reddit or one of several relevant sub-reddits would co-publicize and sponsor via crowdfunding. If we’re going to have alternative media, we have to be prepared to sponsor polling (especially polls nobody else seems to want the answers to.)
You don’t have to drill down very far into Sanders’ interview on Wednesday to find evidence he feels the Democratic Party is out of touch with voters, and with people he’s been fighting for.
“Are they going to welcome into the Democratic party the working class of the country and young people, or is it going to be a party of the upper middle class, and the cocktail crowd and the heavy campaign contributors,” he asked, calling for a return to a 50-State strategy to organize across the country.
“We want to completely revitalize the Democratic Party and make it a party of the people rather than one of just large campaign contributors.”
I personally believe its time to cut bait with the corporate Democrats and form a party that represents the interests of the much larger majority of the working people in this country.
Were Sanders willing to do something “really radical,” as he says, he could take his mobilized troops and birth a whole new party rather than trying to transplant its energy and ideals into the rotting corpse of the corporate-puppet DNC.
We all know what will happen if Sanders bends the knee: the DNC and Clinton will mouth some pacifying words and pretend to care about what his voters want, and then after the election, they will go back to business as usual. (A $15 minimum wage was too hard to get, they’ll tell us after not ever putting up a fight.)
Wouldn’t it be better (I know it would feel better) to pull the plug on Clinton, the DNC and the whole corrupt system it represents and start afresh? If Sanders is willing to go there, I know I’m not the only footsoldier ready to be led.
