Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumA Contested Convention Is Exactly What the Democratic Party Needs
Bernie Sanders will go to Philadelphia with more pledged delegates than any insurgent in modern history. Heres what he could do with them.
by John Nichols
Joe Biden understands something about the Democratic Party and its future that his fellow partisans would do well to consider. I dont think any Democrats ever won saying, We cant think that bigwe ought to really downsize here because its not realistic, the vice president told The New York Times in April. Cmon man, this is the Democratic Party! Im not part of the party that says, Well, we cant do it. Mocking Hillary Clintons criticism of Bernie Sanders for proposing bold reforms, Biden dismissed the politics of lowered expectations. I like the idea of saying, We can do much more, because we can, he declared, leading the Times to observe that, while Biden wasnt making an endorsement, Hell take Mr. Sanderss aspirational approach over Mrs. Clintons caution any day.
Unwittingly or not, Biden made an even better case than Sanders has for taking his insurgent campaign all the way to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. If the party is going to run in 2016 on a do much more agendaas opposed to triangulating around the centerthe Vermont senators supporters and like-minded Democrats, including Clintons progressive backers, will have to force the issue. Taking the Sanders insurgency to the convention is the paramount vehicle for placing demands that are ideological and, as Bidens comments suggest, also strategic. Thats one reason why Sanders promised in a statement on April 26 to go to the convention with as many delegates as possible to fight for a progressive party platformdespite the fact that Clintons delegate advantage now all but guarantees that she will win the nomination.
What Sanders is proposing is a necessary questand a realistic one. Already, he is better positioned than any recent insurgent challenger to engage in rules and platform debates, as well as in dialogues about everything from the vice-presidential nomination to the character of the fall campaign. As veteran political analyst Rhodes Cook noted in a survey prepared for The Atlantic, by mid-April, Sanders had exceeded the overall vote totals and percentages of Howard Dean in 2004, Jesse Jackson in 1988, Gary Hart in 1984, and Ted Kennedy in 1980, among others. (While Barack Obamas 2008 challenge to Clinton began as something of an insurgency, he eventually ran with the solid support of key party leaders like Kennedy.) By the time the District of Columbia votes on June 14, Sanders will have more pledged delegates than any challenger seeking to influence a national convention and its nominee since the party began to democratize its nominating process following the disastrous, boss-dominated convention of 1968.
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http://www.thenation.com/article/bernies-philadelphia-challenge/
The Velveteen Ocelot
(116,031 posts)KPN
(15,683 posts)Skink
(10,122 posts)Looks like we are getting a tacit endorsement
mopinko
(70,395 posts)it is a sad testament to the democratic party that many consider the party platform to be a dead letter.
how sad is that?
but since it is hammered out behind closed doors, never meant to be acted on, recent history shows this to be correct.
however, a platform hammered out in the full light of day is a bit harder to run away from.
this party needs a lot more small d democracy. and bernie is gonna bring it.