Democrats finally unite
Our view: After weeks of uncertainty, Bernie Sanders gives Hillary Clinton a full-throated endorsement
We’ve known for more than a month that Hillary Clinton had the Democratic presidential primary race sewn up despite an unexpectedly strong challenge from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The only question was when — if ever — Mr. Sanders would concede defeat and throw his support behind the party’s presumptive nominee. Today that finally happened. Standing beside Ms. Clinton at the podium of a high school auditorium in New Hampshire, a state Mr. Sanders won by double digits during the primaries, he delivered a full-throated endorsement of his former rival and pledged to “do everything I can to make sure she’s the next president.”
With the Democratic convention less than two weeks away, Mr. Sanders’ bow to the inevitable came late in the game, but he clearly was trying to make up for it with the enthusiasm he brought to the occasion. In the first few minutes of his speech he lit into the Republicans’ expected standard bearer, Donald Trump, on everything from climate change and clean energy to stagnant American wages, income inequality and Wall Street greed. It was a performance that instantly transformed him into one of Ms. Clinton’s most persuasive surrogates. There was nothing half-hearted or tentative about his apparent determination to be a unifying force when Democrats gather in Philadelphia this month to formally choose their nominee.
Ms. Clinton knows she needs the 13 million voters who cast ballots for Mr. Sanders during the primaries if she is to defeat Mr. Trump in the general election. For his part, Mr. Sanders realized he couldn’t just tell his supporters to go home, give up the high hopes his candidacy inspired, and still expect them to turn out for Democrats in November. He needed to fire up his followers by showing them their movement and the “political revolution” they had started was bigger and than either his or Ms. Clinton’s candidacies this year.
In recent weeks the Sanders and Clinton campaigns have been working to incorporate the issues Mr. Sanders championed during the primaries into the party platform. That process clearly pushed Ms. Clinton further to the left than she was when she launched her campaign. During the early races she criticized Mr. Sanders’ proposals such as a universal single-payer health care insurance and free tuition at public colleges and universities as pie-in-the-sky projects that were unworkable in reality. Now her embrace of those ideas could pay dividends if it convinces Sanders voters that their voices have been heard. Mr. Sanders made a point of lauding the changes as “the most progressive Democratic Party platform in history.”
Now that Mr. Sanders has closed ranks with the party’s front-runner, Ms. Clinton can turn her full attention to a general election that is shaping up as one of the most consequential political contests in American history. For Democrats, the stakes Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton joins Sen. Bernie Sanders on stage as he prepares to endorse her. couldn’t be higher because the outcome will depend on whether the party can build on the legacy of President Obama’s domestic and foreign policies or whether Republicans will systematically dismantle that legacy. The outcome of the race will likely reshape the Supreme Court for a generation, determine the direction of the long war on terrorism and profoundly influence the nation’s long-term economic prospects and standing in the world. Democrats know that to win they’ll need all hands on deck in November and that Mr. Sanders’ supporters could play a critical role in making that happen.
In a time of political and economic uncertainty the nation is facing difficult choices on issues ranging from immigration reform, heath care and an epidemic of opioid overdose deaths to rebuilding the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, reforming the criminal justice system and addressing the crushing burden of college student loan debt. There are no quick or easy solutions to any of these problems, and the next American president will have to find a way to lead the country that brings people together rather than pushes them apart. Having won the endorsement of her only serious rival in the Democratic presidential primaries, Ms. Clinton has shown she can unify her fractious party. Nowshe will have to show she can do the same for a deeply divided nation.