Remember Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), former chair of the DNC, who I suggested should shoulder a large part of the blame if Trump won the Presidency?
It appears that her behavior may have even longer repercussions than I had anticipated, based on this AP report:
Pichone voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein in 2016 and said she may vote for a third party again if Sanders doesn’t clinch the nomination.
She’s emblematic of a persistent group of Sanders supporters who won’t let go of the slights — real and perceived — from the last campaign. The frustration is notable now that Sanders is a 2020 front-runner, raking in $18.2 million in the first quarter, downplaying concerns about DNC bias and highlighting his success in bringing the party around on liberal policies it once resisted.
Some establishment-aligned Democrats worry the party could lose in 2020 if lingering concerns about the last primary aren’t put to bed.
“It has the potential to escalate, and it has the potential to help re-elect Donald Trump,” said Mo Elleithee, a former spokesman for Clinton and the DNC.
If the disaffection with the Democrats is so strong that it could cost them two Presidential elections against the weakest GOP nominee in modern history, Donald J.Trump, then it suggests that the Democrats are nearly as rotten at their core as the Republicans. It doesn’t show up in their policies, which do not feature self-enrichment as a career goal, but the apparent manipulation of the nomination process without regard to the importance of fairness is appalling, which is another way to say the voice of the generic Democratic Party member has receded into nothingness in the conduct of Democratic Party business.
Of course, the fact that Sanders is (I-VT) rather than (D-VT) does throw a bit of fishing line into the cookie batter, doesn’t it? You want that nomination, Bernie, you should join the Party.
But Sanders adherents will take little note of that nicety, and honestly I don’t think they should take note of it. The Democrats should have either treated Sanders as even-handedly as Clinton and the others, OR it should have said, right up front, that Sanders didn’t qualify for the nomination. That would have been respectable and understandable.
Understand, I think Sanders is too old for the Presidency, as is Biden. Call me ageist if you will, but the Presidency isn’t just about who’s got the best policies and promises on offer. It’s also about competency. We don’t need another Reagan falling asleep during meetings.
But if Trump beats a non-Sanders Democratic nominee again, the basic operations of the Democratic Party should be carefully examined by the Party, because otherwise it’ll continue to lose winnable elections. How are they looking these days? The latest from Gallup:
Not so good. The independents are gaining ground while the Republicans continue to sink from the rocks in their pants, and the Democrats are merely treading water. If you’re a Democrat, you should be taking alarm right now.
