I never was a “true” believer, but that’s a general principle. It leads to rationalizing irrational beliefs and behaviors. But I was a believer. Bernie’s message had been missing from Democratic politics for over a decade. It had been missing from the response to the graft and the greed that crashed the world’s economy. It promised to reverse the abandonment of unions and of the working poor, and it recognized the immorality of embracing Wall Street. It spoke to the base of the old Party, of the Party of people over profits, the Party that stood between us and predatory capitalism. And no part of that message was likely to come from Hillary Clinton. That it has, of late, is a tribute to Bernie’s candidacy.
But make no mistake: that message is restorative, for those too young to know, not revolutionary. I never liked the campaign rhetoric of revolution, and I was blind-sided by the extent to which it was taken seriously despite lacking substance. Nor is any part of the message even conceivable on the strength only of enthusiasm. That belief verges on a personality cult. Neither Hillary nor Bernie will accomplish anything if Democrats cannot take the Senate and cut the Republican margin in the House.
Still, the philosophy was right, and the policies were right. It’s just that, somewhere, the politics turned destructive. When victory, always so improbable, suddenly was both probable and close only to be lost the night New York was lost, and by a crushing margin, I still wanted him to stay in the race. I thought that was the only way to prevent Hillary, and the entire Party for that matter, from sliding back to the right. I did expect him to ease up on the Clinton attacks. That he did not was the first red flag. Since then, there have been ever bigger flags.
His attacks on Clinton sharpened even while Trump began using them himself and advertising himself as the natural destination for Bernie’s supporters. Bernie constantly attacks and condemns the Party even though the success of the Party would determine his success as a candidate let alone as a President. Ironically, he continues to attack the Party that he wants to lead while declaring that its own super-delegates are his somewhat ethereal path to victory. Now, he cannot even call his supporters to order without qualifications and excuses. What I see now is anything but leadership or statesmanship. It is not the behavior I would want in a President.
And the stakes, this year, could not be higher. Donald Trump can win this election. He has been given a gift of unimaginable import: he has won the nomination while we continue to fight. That both bestows an initial credibility while freeing him to work at expanding it. Establishment Republicans already are falling sheepishly in line, and Trump is moving with alarming speed to consolidate them, as with his release of potential Supreme Court nominees (a list that should terrify progressives and anyone not an ultra-conservative, religious zealot). And Trump can do such things 24/7. He has no beliefs, and he doesn’t care about anything. He will say whatever, whenever, and change it all in the afternoon.
This is a man whose candidacy would not have survived the first week had he not hit upon a blatant appeal to a racist, resentful, and xenophobic base with a persecution complex and in search of an authoritarian to lead it. And, somehow, we are that close to having, this man as President of the United States, this amoral, unscrupulous, self-promoting con artist whose campaign has been the most persistent and comprehensive onslaught of habituated lying ever to go unquestioned by the media. And he would be working with a Republican Senate and House.
They will set the character of the Supreme Court for decades. They will cut or maybe kill Social Security, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act. They will elevate science denial, denigrate knowledge, and defund education. They will make the morality of an early iron-age tribe from a backwater of its world the law of the land. They will replace religious freedom with Christian privilege. They will institutionalize the concentration of wealth. Civil rights will be cut back dramatically as corporate rights are expanded to an equal degree. Voting rights will be curtailed nationally to secure Republican power. Unions will be a thing of the past, as might be the middle class. They will make the Gilded Age look egalitarian.
If you think that any of this is hyperbole, you have not been paying attention to what Republicans have done in states where they control the executive and the legislative branches. If it happens nationally, Bernie may own a share of it.
“But, but” you stammer, as I once did, “polls show Bernie does better against Trump.” Few of us will admit it, but we’ve gotten a free ride from the press and from the Republicans as well. The former see a ratings advantage to playing up the Bernie-Hillary contest. The latter see a political advantage to leaving him intact to split the Democratic vote. And even before any potential onslaught, Bernie’s lead over Trump is narrowing just as is Hillary’s. That reflects the gift I alluded to above. I believe that Bernie really is a far stronger campaigner than is Hillary, and, therefore, might, in fact, do better against Trump. But other than this questionable arm-waving, we have no reason to assume that at this point, certainly no reason credible enough to take the nomination away from the candidate who actually won it. That would split the Party but with Bernie on the short end.
Bernie’s continued candidacy has become destructive of the Party and, increasingly, of himself. Good no longer can come from it. The primary was decided weeks ago. You may not like it, I certainly did not, but that is the reality. The Sanders’ campaign needed to adjust accordingly, and it adjusted oppositely. If Bernie cannot correct course, every one of his supporters eventually will need to work through for themselves what I worked through a few weeks ago. With stakes this high, you need to be ready.
I still have enough of the “Bern” to hope that what I’m seeing now is just the result of a long, tough campaign. I still have hope that Bernie will become a full and enthusiastic supporter of Clinton, and that he will do so in time to bring most of his remaining people with him. At this point, though, I need to see it to believe.