Of course, he didn’t win the primary election. Hillary will be the nominee barring some sort of cataclysmic event like an indictment, and we all know that’s not likely. And she didn’t just win the nomination, she shattered a glass ceiling that has existed for the duration of our great nation, and will be the first woman President. Finally, there will be nothing that girls cannot aspire to. And that is something we should all celebrate.
So how can I say Sanders won? Well, you don’t have to look too far to see, you just have to open your eyes. Those crowds of tens of thousands at the Sanders rallies? The legions of young people taking up the challenge of upsetting the establishment and corporate rule? The open advocacy of real change, meaningful programs and policies, and calling out the ruling class and their upward wealth redistribution schemes were not only real, but unprecedented. And in doing these things and more, Sanders went from an unknown democratic socialist from Vermont into a legitimate cultural phenomena who almost unseated the obvious, safe candidate.
In contrast, even though Clinton has secured the nomination and will hopefully trounce Trump in November, she touts the wisdom of incremental change, of modest goals, and of finding common ground with today’s Congressional Republicans. There is no authentic political movement here. There is no actual, grass-roots political philosophy forming over enthusiasm for $12/hr and safe fracking. There is no courage in calling for “affordable”, but not universal health care. Nobody is rallying around a moderately hawkish foreign policy. What they are rallying around is a competent, accomplished, seasoned woman candidate who can carry on the Obama legacy.
But I think we all can intuitively understand that the challenges of the future require more than effective administration. We will not solve global warming, wealth inequity, poverty, or a crumbling infrastructure with compromises or working with Mitch McConnell to get what he will agree to. And that brings us to why Sanders really won the primary. Bernie Sanders changed the terms of debate in Presidential politics. For one thing, he’s done the impossible and rescued “socialism” from being a bad word. The idea of government programs that actually help people is something that we can discuss again for the first time in my life, and I’m 50. Sanders, and specifically not Clinton, openly talks about extending and strengthening Social Security, whereas we otherwise have talked about how much we have to tighten the belts. Sanders alone talks about the bold steps necessary to combat global warming, and investing in our future through education and infrastructure. Only Sanders is openly hostile to the banksters and Wall Street calling the shots. Clinton merely says that their money doesn’t affect her decision, and she calls for “transparency” but not getting them out of the equation completely.
Bernie has let the cat is out of the bag, though, and I don’t think there is any going back. Much to the consternation of Clinton supporters (at least for the moment), all those cheering faces you see on TV at the Sanders rally aren’t going away. There will be no time where we drop our mission and adopt the Clinton program. We’ll rally behind her, and help her beat Trump, of course. It may not seem like it right now, but we’re right at the end of a long, contentious, closely-contested primary, and emotions are high. But we all know we can’t have a President Trump, and we’ll do what we have to. And that’s fine, because what Sanders has done transcends this election. Sanders made it acceptable to dream again. He made it possible to talk about what we can build, instead of just trying to stop the bleeding and reversing the damage of the previous administration.
They way I see it, Sanders has opened Pandora’s box. He has squirted all the toothpaste out of the tube. Clinton crashed through the glass ceiling that opens the highest office in the land to women. But Sanders crashed through a different glass ceiling, the one that had us limited to talking about only the magnitude of the austerity we are doomed to. Or what we could possibly get Mitch McConnell to agree to. Or how tough we can be on crime, or what restrictions on reproductive rights are “reasonable.” The threat of being called a communist and made a pariah for championing equal opportunities in education and healthcare, or for wanting robust public transportation and infrastructure investment isn’t there any more. Once again, we are free to dream of what kind of society we can build. He’s taken progressives off of the defensive, and lit a fire of motivation that will last a generation. You see it in the youthful cheering crowds he attracted. They are the future. And they have been unleashed. They are Sanders’ legacy, and why he’s the other winner right now.
