How will Bernie and his supporters react?
Hillary pulled off New York. Her delegate lead, that is earned, not superdelegates, is substantial. She has worked hard, really hard, for this victory. People may say that it was expected, and it was. New York is not a state that Bernie was expected to win. Not just because of the polls, but for other reasons. For one thing it was a primary not a caucus. That means: close the curtain and vote for who you want to privately, no pressure. Also because the primary was closed to independents, Hillary being the nearly lifelong democratic candidate had an advantage.
But the electorate in New York also had a lot to do with her victory. New Yorkers are well informed, generally liberal voters. They have elected Hillary to the senate twice and watched her performance. And they pay attention. They know exactly how she ran her platform, what she promised and what she delivered. They know she was not bought off by special interests. They know she is not a crooked politician, and not a liar. It's hard to sell New Yorkers the Brooklyn Bridge, as they say. They watched her being smeared, but since they knew the truth and could tell what the reality was it was just rhetoric to them. In fact it angered them and encouraged her base to come out and support her. Many of them have gone to the coffee shop or other public place and seen her, talked to her, know her to be a real and caring person totally unlike the negative caricature of her portrayed by her enemies. So yes, they came out enthusiastically to support her for president.
New Yorkers also live in and around Wall Street. Many of them work there or used to, or know someone who does or did. They have watched the anger against the financial district take its most virulent form on 9/11/2001 when the World Trade Towers were the major target of terrorists who hated especially that part of America and what it stands for. They considered those who died in that attack not as evil doers but victims or even heroes. New Yorkers know well that corruption exists, but they also know that these are real people, many of whom are good people just trying to get by in the real world, and so they are not comfortable demonizing all of them. They recognize that Hillary, while wanting to put in place regulations that protect individual investors from fraudulent activity, also sees them as real people. It should come as no surprise that a message of anger against Wall Street and attempts to smear Hillary by pointing out her ties to Wall Street fell flat there.
And in case you want to dismiss her supporters- women, blacks, Hispanics (all people used to being dismissed and rather tired of it), you should also take note of her performance against Trump. By the percentages they both won big in New York. Trump had one of his best performances there, bringing in 60% of the vote, or 524,932 votes. New York is one of the areas of his strongest support. But Hillary won 58% of the democratic vote, or 1,054,932 votes. New York in the end is a democratic not a republican dominant state, and her popularity there far outweighs his.
So, congratulations to Hillary and her enthusiastic base. The New York primary made it almost impossible for Bernie to catch up with her in the delegate race. This is just math, not wishful thinking or distortion of numbers for political gain. Now he would need to receive 70% or more of the remaining votes to win the delegate lead, and the next few large states favor Hillary. The real question now is: how will he respond? Will Bernie become bitter, and continue his negative attacks against Hillary and the Democratic Party? I hope not, but have no confidence that he cares a whit about the Democratic Party given his long history of attacking them prior to this election season and his barely contained anger at the Democratic Party who have overwhelmingly favored Hillary. The question is, does he care who ends up on the Supreme Court for life, or is he more concerned about his own revolution. Revolutions often take down many innocent bystanders, and cause great destruction. Does he really believe that is a good thing for the country, and want to pursue that rather than supporting a candidate who also wants to overturn Citizens United, and raise the minimum wage, and regulate big banks? We watched Hillary swallow this same bitter pill eight years ago, and then come out to graciously ask her supporters to get behind Obama. And they did, although it was hard for many. I sure hope he will also do the right thing. And I hope his supporters can accept that he has done a great service to the country by putting forth his ideas and changing hearts and minds, without feeling they also need to carry the anger that he has stirred up in them to a destructive end.
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