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Bernie Sanders feature photo
OPINION & ANALYSIS
Bernie Sanders Suspends His Campaign: What Happened and What Now?
Once again, disenfranchised American voters are left without a candidate that
represents their values, but instead of staying home or voting against those
values, there is another option, writes Sam Husseini.
by Sam Husseini
April 09th, 2020
By Sam Husseini
Kyle Kulinski of Secular Talk commented just as Bernie Sanders suspended his
campaign: “Bernie made a number of mistakes that I highlighted and broke down
in detail. No excuses. Having said that, you’re out of your fucking mind if you
think I’ll forget or look past ‘bloody monday’, aka the day Obama got Pete &
Amy to drop & endorse Biden. Saving his campaign.”
In fact, the “Bloody Monday” move — when Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar both
endorsed Biden just after his South Carolina win and just before “Super
Tuesday” — might be the tip of the iceberg in terms of how the DNC or other
establishment forces molded the campaign to producer this outcome.
Consider:
* Kamala Harris and Cory Booker pulled out of the race before South Carolina,
paving the way for Biden’s win there. Jim Clyburn of course endorsed Biden just
before South Carolina. Tragically, Jesse Jackson only endorsed Sanders after.
* Warren split the progressive ranks throughout and ultimately refused to
endorse Sanders.
* Even the choices of the candidates was useful to stopping Sanders. Pete
Buttigieg was from Indiana and the net effect of his campaign was to deny
Sanders a clear win in not-so-far-away Iowa. Amy Klobuchar was from Minnesota
and so the net effect of her campaign was to throw that state to Biden so that
Biden won something substantial outside of the south on Super Tuesday, making
his rise appear national and therefore plausibly inevitable.
* Ostensibly antiwar candidate Tulsi Gabbard throughout refused to meaningfully
criticize the war addicted Biden — even when she had a clear shot to do so
during the debates on his Iraq war lies. Meanwhile, Sanders just kept saying
Biden voted for the Iraq war while Sanders didn’t. Sanders never meaningfully
made the case that Biden played key role in making the Iraq invasion happen and
never really tore into his lies.
* Mike Gravel — who might have really tore into Biden — was excluded from the
debate stage throughout.
* Julián Castro was marginalized shortly after he attacked Biden.
* Bloomberg coming in had the net effect of Warren going after him — for things
she could well have gone after Biden about but didn’t. His demise effectively
gave the base a sense of weird relief that Biden is the nominee: “Well, at
least we didn’t get stuck with Billionaire Bloomberg”.
You couldn’t have planned it better for Biden if you tried. And lots of forces
— from the DNC to the establishment media did try in thousands of ways.
Corporate Dems Caught Between #MeToo Rock and Joe Biden Hard Place
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and corporate Democrats are closing ranks to defend Joe Biden.
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Additionally, the entire “Ukrainegate” obsession — contrary to a slew of
deluded progressive commentators at the time — built up Biden as the
anti-Trump. Trump was trying to attack him, so he must be the one Trump is
afraid of was the obvious logic. That was the net effect of the entire media
focus on that including the ultimate impeachment (remember impeachment?).
Indeed, in this incredibly vicious cycle, just as many Republicans likely
turned to Trump because they felt they needed a corrupt celebrity to stop
Hillary Clinton, many Democrats likely turned to Biden for similar reasons this
year.
And at a societal level, the pandemic struck chords of fear in people’s
collective psychology. It was like the Y2K story. As January 1, 2000
approached, people were filled with dread and fear, so that what should have
been a time for great hope was a time for just hoping to get by. Like now. The
pandemic pushed many people to turn to the familiar, to something that they
associate with not being a disaster. (This is the opposite of what happened in
1900 — that period was apparently greeted with great embrace.)
Then there’s Sanders’ own role, his incapacity — or more likely, his
unwillingness — to mount sharper attacks on Biden, of shedding his imperial
presumptions and more deeply taking on the foreign policy establishment.
Sanders’ ultimate legacy may be what the late great Bruce Dixon called
“Sheepdogging.”
So, now what?
As I outlined last month:
There are two obvious responses:
Burn it Down: The impulsive thing to do would be to want to burn down the
Democratic Party. It’s possible that the establishment of the Democratic Party
would be OK with this — they seem to fear a President Sanders more than the
fear another term of Trump. So, people would stay home or vote for a third
party or independent candidate who openly states that they have virtually no
chance of winning.
Cave In: Others might insist that no matter how badly the Democratic Party
establishment treats its voters, they need to get in line come November and
vote for whoever the nominee is. This is euphemistically referred to as “hold
your nose and voting.” People have done this for decades and it’s typically
resulted in the corporate wing of the Democratic Party becoming more and more
powerful.
The first of these will be disastrous because it will help Trump.
The Best of Frenemies: The Trump-Media Logrolling
Trump and the establishment media log roll with each other. The media built up
Trump. Trump's attacks elevate a select few media celebrities.
MintPress News | Sam Husseini | Aug 16, 2018
The second will be disastrous because it effectively surrenders control of the
Democratic Party to the corporate wing, probably for the foreseeable future.
But there is a third choice: The VotePact strategy.
With the VotePact strategy, in the general election, disenchanted Democratics
team up with a disenchanted Republicans. They pair up: spouses and friends and
coworkers and neighbors and debating partners and ex-facebook friends. Instead
of the two of them voting for candidates they don’t want, they pair up and vote
for the third party or independent candidate of their choice.
Given the pandemic, all bets may be off. Things could slide into disaster — or
a great new world could be born. One could almost envision the rise of the
Stay-At-Home party. People can talk to their loved ones in a way they never
have. And they may embrace their neighbors — even if it is at ten feet — as the
never have before. Zoom could be filled with hopes and dreams and a path might
be found to get there. We might be driven by fear and shallow hate and
sectarian thinking — or we might decide to come together as a country and as a
world as we never have before.
VotePact takes work. But it’s a path out of the duopoly and toward freedom.
Given the tumult before us, it is actually a rather moderate proposal, drawing
us to a sane center, away from the disastrous paths of both Biden, which gave
birth to Trump — and Trump himself.
Sam Husseini is the founder of VotePact.org.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily
reflect MintPress News editorial policy.
