In May of this year, Robert Reich urged his fellow Bernie supporters to "work like hell" to elect Hillary Clinton if she earned the Democratic nomination for president.
But while many Bernie supporters have now gotten behind Hillary, that support has never really materialized from Reich. He sure isn't "working like hell" to get Hillary elected president. Even after imploring Bernie supporters to get behind her, Reich wrote this
ten days before the Democratic convention:
So as the Republican convention prepares to nominate the least qualified and most divisive candidate in American history, the Democrats are about to nominate among the most qualified and most distrusted.
Did Bernie get out too soon?
With supporters like that, who needs opponents?
Below are some examples of Robert Reich's Facebook posts during the past week. There has been no enthusiastic advocacy of the Democratic nominee and no defense of her positions. In fact I could not find a single example of him writing something strictly positive about Clinton, only faint praise and the occasional backhanded compliment. Certainly nothing that might motivate someone to vote for her.
Through both is own comments and the articles he chooses to share, Reich seems to be actively trying to damage Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.
The
final straw for me was yesterday when Reich wrote this:
"Can we be completely honest? Purging the DNC of top officials won’t remedy the DNC’s problems. Those problems are structural. The Democratic National Committee – like the Republican National Committee – has become little more than a giant machine designed to suck up big money from wealthy individuals, lobbyists bundlers, and corporate and Wall Street PACs…
What’s needed is structural reform. The DNC has to turn itself – and the Democratic Party -- into a grass-roots membership organization…
Unfortunately, I doubt this will happen. Which is why no number of purges are going to make the DNC the kind of organization that serves the public interest. And why we’re going to need a third party, or a third force, to force the Democratic Party to do what’s right by America."
As the Democratic National Convention was kicking off he wrote a commentary and posted an article describing it as "one big corporate bribe."
During the convention, he expressed alarm that "big donors" were able to talk to Bill and Chelsea Clinton during the festivities and posted a New York Times article trashing Democratic fundraising.
A couple of days ago, he shared an article from Murdoch's New York Post painting Democratic fundraising in a negative light. That one really got his rabidly Hillary-hating fans stirred up.
One day last week, he decided to trash the DNC and the Center for American Progress simply for holding a reception with Google because evil corporation.
Reich complained that because Hillary's convention speech was too short on specifics it "may not be enough to win her the support of Bernie supporters and others who don’t yet trust her to make their issues her priorities.”
He also mentioned this week that the the U.S. economy is going down hill and we'll likely have a recession within a year.
I understand the Hillary Clinton isn't flawless and the Democratic Party isn't without its problems. Reich does bring up some legitimate points amid the hyperbole. But this is the middle of a general election, and if you're someone who claims to be working like hell to elect Hillary Clinton, it's simply not helpful to criticize the candidate and the party every day.
The criticisms are not constructive. Attacking Hillary for raising money from large donors is not going to make her decide to stop right now and unilaterally disarm in the weeks prior to election day. Attacking Hillary in this way can only damage her and increase Trump’s chances of winning.
Further, Reich is driving a wedge between many Bernie supporters and the Democratic Party. The comments on his Facebook post are usually filled with promises to vote for the Green Party. If Reich continues to attack the Democratic Party through election day, he only diminishes the influence that Bernie, himself, and their followers will have in the Clinton administration.
Do they want to be part of the governing coalition or not?