The Bernie Sanders era – get used to it
It is very possible that Senator Bernie Sanders heads into the Democratic convention with the majority of delegates in his pocket.
Doing the math, it is becoming more and more difficult to imagine any other outcome. What does that mean? Like Republicans in 2016, Democrats will be forced to make a tough choice. Toss political convention aside in order to vanquish the opponent (Donald Trump) at any cost or depart on a self-imposed exile from the movement as many GOP “Never Trumpers” did?
Further, do they give tacit consent to the Democratic Party establishment to collaborate in an effort to make the math work against Bernie Sanders, thus purging him from the ticket altogether?
Addressing the latter first, a Bernie-less ticket would diminish the chances of Democrats being swept out of the House of Representatives and losing seats in the Senate as voters cast off the party, socialists and all.
The risk in doing that, apart from the cynical nature of the exercise is that “Bernie Bros” far and wide may be getting ready for the mayhem they plan to unleash onto the streets of Milwaukee and elsewhere should Bernie be bounced.
In January, hidden camera footage released by Project Veritas showed a man named Kyle Jurek, a campaign organizer for the Sanders campaign in Iowa, previewing what would play out in Milwaukee if Sanders did not win the nomination.
“If Bernie doesn’t get the nomination or it goes to a second round at the DNC Convention, (expletive) Milwaukee will burn,” Jurek said. “It’ll start in Milwaukee and when police push back on that, then other cities,” he continued.
Jurek wasn’t finished. “The cops are gonna be the ones that are getting (expletive) beaten in Milwaukee. They’re gonna call up the National Guard for that (expletive). I promise you that.”
Hopefully, Jurek is an outlier but there have been reports in recent weeks of Sanders supporters acting aggressively in primary and caucus states.
If Sanders leaves the convention as the nominee it will be up to Democrats to decide how they’ll comport themselves. They can go all-in and support Sanders’ candidacy and hope for the best in a Sanders presidency or they can stay home and tolerate President Trump for four more years.
Though President Sanders would likely get little or nothing done legislatively, he would have the power of the executive branch at his fingertips and that means political and judicial appointments. Who knows what that might look like?
His avowed affection for socialist leaders worldwide would make for interesting foreign policy and the man who honeymooned in the Soviet Union would share unique ideological sentiments with the former Soviet apparatchik, Vladimir Putin.
The concept of a President Bernie Sanders is an extraordinary thing to think about but so is Sanders as the Democratic nominee.
Many Democrats were not emotionally prepared for the election of Donald Trump — it came without warning. In the case of Bernie Sanders, though, they’ve got plenty of warning and we must hope that they have thought it through, for the benefit of themselves and the entire country.