As Tensions Simmer, Poll Shows Majority of Democrats Want Bold Leftward Shift

[Ken Burch]

245. He did do filings with the FEC, right?

At least I assume the guy did.

What I don't get is why anybody, at this late date, would be trying to de-legitimize Bernie's presence in the LAST primary cycle? What's the point of asserting that his campaign essentially shouldn't have been allowed to happen(it goes without saying that he would never have run against the Dem nominee as a third-party candidate; he proved that by turning down Stein's offer of the Green ballot line)when the nominating process that campaign was part of has been over for more than a year now?

What matters is the future. And in that future, if we don't want Bernie to run again-and I join you in agreeing that a second Sanders campaign would be a horrible idea and doubt that Bernie actually wants to go there-then we need to accept the legitimacy of the continued existence of his movement and of the presence of its supporters and the ideas they champion as part(not all, but part)of our future political direction. We need those voters, just as we need people who were 2016 non-voters and we need the restored votes of those whose votes were suppressed in 2016.

How does it help us as a party for people to be saying things that can only have the effect of driving 2016 Sanders voters away from the party and out of politics? How does it help us for there to be a large-scale effort not only to pressure Bernie not to run again, but to essentially demand that the entire Sanders movement disband, leaving those who were part of it as nothing but disconnected individuals with no meaningful way available to them to help? We can't demand that they cease to exist as a group and then, in the next breath, demand that they just fall in as Democratic footsoldiers and work for whatever the rest of the party imposes while having essentially no say in the party's direction.

In short, we can't win these people over by demanding that they repent before joining us. The campaign they were involved in in the 2016 primaries was not evil, and neither is the movement they are building today.

As to people of color, what I saw POC voters objecting to about Bernie-and these objections were absolutely valid-was a sense that he was personally insensitive, a belief that he didn't try hard enough to win POC votes and the fact that he didn't speak to issues of racial justice anywhere near often enough. Those were the issues. POC aren't against the social democratic part of his program and are often(not always, but often) to the left of other Democrats on economic issues.

It seems logical, then, to conclude that the Democratic party needs to embrace some social democratic measures or, at least, openly get back to the idea that there are times when we have to put justice and human need ahead of short term gain for the few, and to do so while acknowledging the effects of historic and continuing oppression and openly defending reproductive choice, and without falling into the error of believing that the establishment of economic justice would end any and all other injustices in American society.