Bernie still sees himself as a 60's revolutionary [View all]

[Haveadream]

Perhaps that is why he is encouraging protests and why he wants a contested convention. The 1968 convention riots were part of a high ideological point in his life and in some important ways he has never been able to move on from that era. That would make sense since so much of his rhetoric replays the nostalgic themes from that period over and over.

In 1968, MLK and candidate Bobby Kennedy had just been assassinated, there were massive student protests against the war and the "establishment" and the Dem nomination was in shambles. Humphrey, who never competed in a primary was ahead in delegates because of Dem party controlled caucuses. He was leading McCarthy, the anti war candidate, who had won the Dem people's votes in the Primaries. Protests were intense outside the Convention and the Chicago police took violent measures to contain it.

The problem with this nostalgia, despite Bernie constant references, is that we do not have a political climate similar to what we had in 1968. The largest similarity is the "establishment's" oppression of the civil rights of PoC, the current manifestations of which Bernie seems to be unable to champion. The fact is, we are not engaged in a huge war for which we draft thousands the way we did in VietNam. This is inconsequential to him though he is trying, hard as he might, to create a parallel. The fact is, it is Hillary who has won the popular vote in the primaries by a massive amount and it is Bernie who has a smaller margin in the decidedly undemocratic open caucuses. This reality is something he has to distort to make it appear he is the people's choice because otherwise his delusions of 1968 McCathyesque grandeur do not work.

I have to wonder, as Bernie keeps encouraging protests and a contested convention, if he doesn't on some level, want a replay of those dramatic events of 1968. I suspect in the 2016 version, he would be cast as the McCarthy martyr for whom people are willing to shed blood on the streets to see the causes of peace and justice prevail. For myself, I am unwilling to indulge his adolescent fantasies of greatness at the expense of the true voice of the people, especially those of women and minorities for whom justice is still out of reach, so he can relive a time in his life that had so much meaning.