“Personnel is policy.” This traditional – and smart – piece of political wisdom should be where supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders focus their attention now.
Bernie should absolutely press his case to the Convention, but we also need contingency plans. If Bernie does not become the nominee, then the question will be, “What does the Party need to give the Sanders movement to get its supporters to shift over to Clinton?”
The answer to that vital question is “personnel.” Personnel is policy, and we want progressives in key positions.
The first key position, of course, is nominee for Vice President. That has to be a strong progressive or it is game over for the Democrats. The VP nominee could be Bernie himself, or Elizabeth Warren, or someone else, but the party needs to get at least this far in negotiating for our support.
There are hopeful signs. Important committees at the Democratic Convention that were initially stacked with Clinton supporters are now split proportionally, because we protested. The Nation magazine reports that a negotiated settlement on Platform Committee membership has produced a progressive majority there. This is a good start, but it needs to continue into the next administration.
Later, the issue will be who is on the transition team, and then whom that transition team will choose for high-level political appointments. The same proportionality in personnel should continue. If the Democratic Party wants Hillary to be the next president, it needs to welcome the Sanders movement inside and make us its partner in building the next administration.