2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Bernie Sanders Explains How He Would Deal With An Obstructionist Congress [View all]Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)I've read the complaint that Obama, once elected, did not use the OfA resource. People on that huge mailing list were largely ignored except for pleas to donate to the Democratic Party or its candidates. Nor was Obama on TV, vigorously denouncing Republican obstructionism.
For example (I don't know if Sanders would agree with this example but it fits his general statement): When the Republicans used a partial shutdown as leverage for their policy objectives, Obama could have done a TV speech in which he held up a copy of a one- or two-page bill that would continue spending at established levels. He could have explained how simple this was and urged people to demand that their Congressmembers support the bill (including signing a discharge petition to get around Boehner's obstructionism). He could have particularly threatened the Republican Congressmen who represented districts he carried -- going to their districts, waving around a copy of the bill, painting them (accurately) as the villains, and promising to return to the district to campaign against them the next year.
Obama instead chose a more conciliatory course. We can argue about whether, in advance, he should have known that this wouldn't work very well. What's clear, with the benefit of hindsight, is that it didn't. Obama himself appears to have realized this.
I interpret Sanders's statement in the OP as meaning that, from Day One, he'll go on the offensive. Some Republican Congressmembers are hopeless because they care only about a Tea Party challenge. Others, however, do represent blue or purple districts. A President who wasn't as averse to confrontation as Obama was initially could bring a lot of pressure to bear on them, making them fear a Democrat in November more than a Tea Partier in the primary.