The Democratic Party for Democrats

[Ken Burch]

76. It doesn't matter whether Bernie is a Democrat or not.

The larger question was never about Bernie as a person vs. Hillary as a person.

It's about the way this party is run and the question of how it should be run.

The idea of how this party should be run that was associated with(but did not originate with)Bernie's campaign is that the party should be run from below, should be the fighting voice of those kept from power, for the non-rich and the historically oppressed against the rich and the historically privileged.

The idea of how this party should be run that was kept in place in the primaries, which was associated with Hillary's campaign but, again, was not originate by it, was that it was silly to actually let the grassroots run the party, that instead it needed to be run with an understanding that a small, self-designated group of "professionals" within the party were the natural leaders and the natural arbiters of what is and what is not within the range of the possible.

Those who backed Bernie who were and are "indepedents" are people whose natural place would have been within this party had not this party, starting in the late Eighties, started blaming progressives for ALL its problems and decided that the key to victory lay in putting progressives(and I'm including POC and working-class people of all races in that category, along with activists for peace and against corporate greed)in their place or driving the out into the cold, while welcoming in a lot of millionaires and billionaires in their place.

Bernie shouldn't run again...but as a party, we need to recognize that the economic ideas of his campaign(ideas no other Dem candidate was remotely close to) must be part of where we go, and that the energy and commitment of the his supporters is also a necessary component of a Democratic comeback. To make the connections that are needed with the Sanders movement, we need to accept that the Sanders campaign was legitimate and that the ideas that campaign was based on were valid and remain popular, and that his supporters should be made welcome as a group into this party if they wish to be a part of it.

While I understand your wish to defend the legitimacy of Hillary's nomination(the vast majority of people who worked for Bernie DID accept it and did campaign for her in the fall) it serves no good purpose for anyone to be starting threads that even go close to arguing that he should never have been permitted in those primaries and that we should go forward as if that campaign never happened.

Let's just all stipulate this:

1)Hillary was nominated and would have won the nomination under any scenario;
2)Bernie's primary campaign had a right to happen, and essentially HAD to happen;
3)We need the ideas and people from both campaigns, as well as as many new progressive ideas and new people as possible, if we are to win.

OK?