The Democratic Party's Civil War Is Just Getting Started

[JDPriestly]

52. I am a strong Bernie supporter, and I think he still can win the nomination

because of the many difficulties that Hillary faces including but not limited to her e-mail problems and because Bernie is the best Democratic candidate to beat Trump.

Should Hillary actually get the nomination, as some of the posters have suggested, I predict that she will have to abandon her incremental approach in the face of natural disasters and other events that she is not preparing to meet and that she will have the support of the American people if she does so.

The movement to the left that the popularity of Bernie demonstrates is not like previous movements to the left. It is not about personal gain. It is not extremely angry; it is the response to extreme threats including environmental threats that Hillary's incrementalism will not be able to deal with adequately.

There is no choice for our country but to move to the left with regard to economics and our environment. Because of climate change and our extreme economic disparity (note the terrible amount of homelessness in cities like Los Angeles), our country will simply have to respond with cooperative policies that would have seemed left-wing 30 years ago.

The libertarian leaning policies that Hillary supporters call incrementalism will become increasingly unpopular as we struggle with heretofore unknown challenges like rising sea levels, animal extinctions, more serious droughts and floods than we have known in recent decades.

The world is changing.

Here in California, our drought has challenged us beyond what we expected as recently as five years ago. We have had to work together and sacrifice to stretch our water resources. Grassy front yards are being replaced one by one with drought-resistant plantings. We are all working together in a quiet way to cope with our increasingly dry weather.

That's just one example of the kind of cooperation that Americans will need to demonstrate in the next few years. Some may call that "left-wing," but in reality, it isn't any kind of wing. It will be a requirement for survival, a tactic that makes working together and recognizing and working for common interests more and more popular.

Sometimes cooperation is the best survival technique. That is the situation now.

Whether she likes it or not, Hillary's incrementalism will prove too little too late, and, if she is elected, she will find herself forced to espouse and implement Bernie's policies because they deal with the reality of the next years and its challenges, not the cozy reality she has known in the past.

Bernie Sanders is supported by people who see and sense this new reality that is coming to us. We will have no choice in the matter if we want to deal with our new reality. We will have to work together in ways we have not wanted to do in the past. We will have no choice. Universal healthcare and drastically reducing student debt are just two tools we will need to use to deal with our increasingly challenging future.

Bernie is so popular because he offers solutions to the problems people are facing. That's why his support base is so young and so determined.

Hillary will soon find herself feeling the Bern. Either Bernie will be the actual nominee or Hillary will have to rely on many of his proposals in order to succeed as president.