Taking Sanders’ compassionate, sensible, humanistic agenda all the way to the convention and inspiring the American people to fight for their future in 2018, 2020 and beyond is definitely a noble cause.
I hate to contradict our most magnanimous host, but in an otherwise pretty good piece predicting Tuesday’s primary results in Wisconsin, Kos concludes with:
But I won’t pretend that dragging this thing out in 2016 is any more noble than Clinton doing it in 2008.
With all due respect to Kos, it is more noble.
For one thing, some of those young people Sanders has engaged will be supporting downballot Democrats in November. For another, fighting to the end keeps the final tally close, which will show that there is a politically viable alternative to DLC/New Democrat/Third Way politics. This is especially true since Sanders running this close to a candidate who has every conceivable advantage, with backing from almost every conceivable center of Establishment influence—almost as big an advantage as an incumbent president. If Sanders stops campaigning, Clinton wins all the rest of the states in a rout, the final tally looks huge in her favor, and by 2020, or 2024, assuming Clinton runs for a second term in 2020, the story will be that only a center-right, DLC/New Democrat/Third Way nominee could ever stand a chance.
(UPDATE: And with that in mind, please check out this diary, which raises some great points.)
Marginalizing the left might look like a preferred outcome to Kos. I don’t know his preferences well enough to say.
However, I see the Sanders campaign as a battle against destructive, neoliberal trade and economic policies that have decimated the middle class for more than 30 years. Against military action to effect regime change. Against being even more closely aligned with Netanyau’s Likud government. Against the corrupting influence of oligarch and corporate money in politics. Against climate change policy so soft on entrenched corporate interests that it is nowhere near as effective as it needs to be—look for years of incremental change while climate change gains more momentum.
The things that need to be done cannot be done with this Congress. It might be unrealistic to think Sanders can still pull this thing out. But the notion that someone with literally none of Obama’s political gifts will somehow, with the same-old DLC/New Democrat/Third Way politics as usual, even succeed where Obama has succeeded, let alone where he has failed, is beyond unrealistic. It’s sheer fantasy.
Yes, Bernie’s political revolution might not succeed in changing the political landscape. It has been a longshot from Day 1. But it’s pretty much the only hope for the U.S. middle class, for government by the people and for the people instead of by big money, and, with climate in the mix more urgently than ever, for the long-term prospects of civilization itself.
The Barbarians are at the gate. And they’re wearing expensive suits.
It would be a tragedy to waste the next one or two presidential terms on politics as usual and incrementalism.
And by the way, when I went to college, public colleges and universities in my state and others were tuition-free. But Clinton, whose parents were well-off enough to send her to a private college, scoffs at Sanders for suggesting that young people today have the exact thing I had in California. Ridicules him for it. As if what actually did happen couldn’t happen.
No. Just taking this as one example, as long as a candidate for president of the United States can get away with claiming higher-education opportunities that we had for decades is wildly impractical and impossible, it is important to set the record straight. Taking Sanders’ compassionate, sensible, humanistic agenda all the way to the convention and inspiring the American people to fight for their future in 2018, 2020 and beyond is definitely a noble cause.
It’s late over here, so I won’t be around to comment much. Thanks to everyone who read this far.
Borrowed from this diary:
#GOTV #GOTV #GOTV
United we stand
Divided we fall
Thanks, Hammerhand!
UPDATE: Many thanks to all who rec’d and commented, even those who disagreed. We have our differences over candidates, but we share many of the same ideals and goals. Thanks also to the people who reblogged!
It’s way past my bedtime over here, so I’m signing off until morning.
