The party strikes back

Well they pulled it off. It was orchestrated beautifully and the results were everything they hoped for and then some.

The leaders of the Democratic Party put a dramatic stop to Bernie Sanders’ momentum and dealt what is very possibly a death blow to his campaign.

They were not going to have done to their party what Donald Trump did to the Republican Party four years ago — a hostile takeover.

They were not going to let a populist and an outsider, indeed a man who declined to ever join the Democratic Party, become the Democratic Party’s nominee for president of the United States. No way.

And the brilliant thing the party elite did was that they did not wait until after Super Tuesday. They would strike at Bernie before the big vote.

It was an all-out assault on multiple fronts: They cleared the field, and those competing for the center lane were hustled and muscled and promised away. (Long-ago candidate Beto O’Rourke was allegedly promised czar of gun control.) And everyone from Susan Rice to James Comey (endorsement rejected) vowed his or her allegiance to Uncle Joe Biden. Hillary Clinton reappeared with her anti-Sanders slanders. And the media did its part: Socialist, socialist, socialist. Sanders cannot win.

If Mr. Sanders wants to stay in this race he would be smart to buy some national TV air time and talk directly to the American people. Tell us why you like that word, Bernie, and what it means to you.

Otherwise the word is a sword Mr. Sanders gives his enemies.

And we know that almost everyone with uber stature in the Democratic Party is a Sanders enemy. If this move, this pre-emption of Mr. Sanders, was not hatched in an Obama or Clinton parlor, it surely was refined there. This is who we are talking about: the Clintons and Obamas and Harry Reids and Nancy Pelosis of the party — its elders.

Donald Trump said it: They will never let Bernie be nominated.

And why is that? Do the polls show he is less electable than Mr. Biden? No, as of today, either man would have a tough climb in the Electoral College. Is it because they fear socialism?

No, it is because they fear losing control of the party apparatus and of government next time they win it. Remember that while Republicans often fail at government because they don’t really believe in it, Democrats believe deeply in government. But not, these days, so much as an instrument of justice as of power and commerce. Government and politics is their living. Influence peddling is a mode of being.

Bernie is not a member of the club. He’s not for sale. He would change everything. To many of the people who run the Democratic Party, even at the state and local level, he is a dangerous man.

What the elites did to Bernie wasn’t illegal. All is fair in politics. The party machine has the right to put its thumb on the scales. They did it in 2016 — to Bernie! But isn’t an oligarchic Democratic Party a strange thing to behold? And aren’t so many passive voters willing to follow their leaders off a cliff a sad thing to observe?

For a cliff it will be. The Democratic elites will probably get Joe now. But be careful what you cheat for. He is the same guy. Victory did not infuse him with a clear mind or a moral center. He is still the same confused, inarticulate candidate, making up stories about his past triumphs like a little boy. He was a loyal and skillful vice president. He is also the guy who gave us the Bork hearings, the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings and voted for the Iraq War and NAFTA. Oh, and his son is the ultimate influence peddler.

Good old Uncle Joe is an old shoe, but there are holes in the sole.