They Just Don't Get It [View all]

[Jerrymooney]

Dr. Lara Brown, Director at George Washington School of Political Management recently wrote in the New York Times that Bernie Sanders should drop out of the race. Her contention is that his campaign has achieved its ideological purpose. Although she says that Sanders’ campaign helped prevent Hillary’s campaign from becoming a coronation, it appears that is exactly what she is advocating for.

There are three things that Dr. Brown is failing to consider in her analysis. First, the Sanders’ campaign for president is not merely a protest, but an actual and viable run at the nation’s top office. But, since before Secretary Clinton even announced she was running, pundits have been penciling her in as the nominee if not the actual president. But not everyone wants this. On the left, masses of voters want a candidate who is less hawkish and doesn’t think war is practical.

Secondly, there is a strong sense by millions of Americans that the economic and political are rigged along with the tax systems. Senator Sanders’ campaign is not merely to illuminate how this is true, but an attempt to breakdown the structures that have rigged the game. As his campaign has progressed, it has exposed major flaws in our system that suppress votes and prop up the presumptive candidates.

Third, if the timing of the campaign were changed to where the south didn’t vote as early, we would have a completely different frontrunner. And with a third of the delegates yet to be decided and 8 of the last 10 states having been won by Sanders’ the fact that shenanigans and suppression tactics handed the New York victory to Secretary Clinton is, by no means, a signal that the Sanders campaign should drop out. This is the narrative of those who do not like democracy. Of those who want to appoint the victor instead of the people’s voice determining it.

The old yarn about pivoting to the middle to focus on the general election is particularly hollow in this race. Secretary Clinton is already cast as the centric campaign and whoever wins the Republican nomination, likely Trump, will be so far from the center that whatever perception people have of the Democrat’s center will be meaningless.

So, no Dr. Lara Brown, Bernie Sanders should not drop out. Even if he needs to stay in the race to keep otherwise estranged voters, like millennials still engaged throughout the process, that is worth it. And the hypothetical cost rings hollow. When people outside of the radical Trump core evaluate him against any other option it will not matter when the Democratic nominee pivoted.