Until today, the primary race between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton was generally a cordial affair. Until today, many Sanders supporters were starting to become resigned to the likelihood of a Clinton victory, and expressing willingness to vote for Clinton in the general election, to help stop a Republican extremist such as Donald Trump or Ted Cruz from becoming president.
Now? Well, when the Democratic National Committee denies access to one candidate’s campaign data, preventing him from fundraising and canvassing in the upcoming primaries, it’s not going to be easy to get that candidate’s supporters to vote for the other candidate if he loses. Instead, many Sanders voters might decide that the Democratic Party put its thumb on the scale through an explicit act of favoritism towards Clinton, and that such a party and its candidates are not worthy of a vote until it cleans up its evident corruption.
I will be voting for whoever is the Democratic nominee, because I believe the likely Republican nominee represents a threat to the very integrity of American freedom and democracy the likes of which has not been seen in generations.
But I’m not sure that most of my fellow Sanders supporters will be willing to do the same. If Clinton wins the nomination now, it will be at least in part because of cheating by the DNC. Ironically, if the DNC had done nothing, Clinton probably would have won a more convincing victory over Sanders; but now, her nomination will have an inescapable taint of insider corruption and doubts about whether it was obtained fairly. Many voters might not choose to look past that for the good of the country, to deny Donald Trump the presidency, as I believe is our unpleasant duty regardless of the fact that the Democratic Party may in fact be corrupt to the bone. Instead, they might argue that it is for the good of the country that a political party that rigs the primary process should be considered the greater evil to American democracy, and must be purged from the political landscape — even if that means that the 2016 election goes to Trump.
Although I disagree with that line of reasoning, it is a reasonable enough argument that I expect many Bernie Sanders voters to support it and refuse to support Clinton if she is the nominee. I can see their point — we should not have to tolerate parties in this country that rig elections through the kind of underhanded tactics that Debbie Wasserman Schultz has employed in today’s DNC decision against the Sanders campaign. Some people will argue that the only way to clean up the party would be to punish its current leaders by denying them electoral victory.
If Trump becomes the next president of the United States, Ms. Wasserman Schultz will bear a great deal of responsibility for such a national tragedy. By undermining the faith of a large percentage of Democratic voters in the basic integrity and fairness of the Democratic primary process, the DNC may cost the Democratic nominee enough votes so that the Republican wins by default.
Thanks to the DNC and its politically motivated but incredibly stupid decision today, we may all be saying “President Trump” next November. If the DNC wises up and quickly restores access to the Sanders campaign’s data, the damage might be limited and the wounds of the primary process could still be healed. If they keep Sanders locked out from his data, tying one hand behind his campaign’s back in a misguided attempt to help Hillary Clinton, the damage will be permanent. The Democratic Party as we know it will be no more, and the election will be lost for Clinton, Sanders, and everyone else who wants to prevent America from descending into the darkness of fascism.
Please do the right thing, DNC, and let’s put this episode behind us and move forward as one united party to defeat the Republicans in 2016.
