I know, I know, it’s fine to blast Hillary and say she is worse than Trump, but taking a critical look at Bernie means I’m violating the Eleventh Commandment for Progressives, speak no ill of our Savior:
Sanders has also faced very little in the way of negative advertising. Of the roughly $383 million spent on campaign television advertising so far this year, only about 2 percent has gone to anti-Sanders ads, according to Elizabeth Wilner of the research firm Kantar Media. Much of those ads only briefly mentioned the candidate’s name or image. Perhaps the most sustained barrage he’s faced to date was a $600,000 conservative-backed campaign attacking him as “too liberal,” a charge that likely did little damage in the Democratic primary.
But if you know the story of the Pied Piper, there is an analogy between the righteous and justified indignation of Sanders and the righteous and justified indignation of the Pied Piper of Hamelin too:
In 1284, while the town of Hamelin was suffering from a rat infestation, a piper dressed in colorful red clothing appeared, claiming to be a rat-catcher. He promised the mayor a solution to their problem with the rats. The mayor in turn promised to pay him for the removal of the rats. (According to some versions of the story, the promised sum was 1000 guilders.) The piper accepted and played his pipe to lure the rats into the Weser River, where all but one drowned.
Despite the piper's success, the mayor reneged on his promise and refused to pay him the full sum (reputedly reduced to a sum of 50 guilders) even going so far as to hint that he brought the rats himself in an extortion attempt. The piper left the town angrily, vowing to return later to take revenge. On Saint John and Paul's day while the Hamelinites were in church, the piper returned dressed in green like a hunter playing his pipe. In so doing, he attracted the town's children. One hundred and thirty children followed him out of town and into a cave and were never seen again.
Just like the people of Hamelin, the Democratic Party needed an answer to their rat infestation, Democrats needed a response to the discontent of the American people on several issues where their priorities got lost: student debt, campaign finance, Wall Street, income inequality, and trade.
Bernie, we all hear you, the whole country hears you, your message has been received. Hillary has adopted most of Bernie’s platform even if he doesn’t think she is going far enough. Sanders pointed out the error in her ways and the path to a Social Democratic future. She took his advice, it worked. Now it’s time to pay the piper. In his view it means super delegates should give him the nomination. Even Donald Trump will tell you, “Bernie Sanders is not being treated fairly…. It is a rigged system.”
It’s not gonna happen, so the question remains, what will he do next? Lead the children away from town never to be seen again, and hurt the party so Democrats will regret the day they spurned him, or will he make a different choice and do the right thing, even if he’s righteously and justly indignant?
However he turned from South to West,
And to Koppelberg Hill his steps addressed,
And after him the children pressed;
Great was the joy in every breast.
"He never can cross that mighty top!
He's forced to let the piping drop,
And we shall see our children stop!"
When, lo! as they reached the mountain-side,
A wondrous portal opened wide,
As if a cavern was suddenly hollowed;
And the Piper advanced and the children followed,
And when all were in to the very last,
The door in the mountain-side shut fast.