Well, that’s that, then. I’ve been listening to Democratic loyalists deride supporters of Bernie Sanders for…quite awhile, now. The 2016 Democratic primary, they insist, was the purist, most perfectly fair electoral process that has ever occurred in the history of electoral processes and so-called “Bernie Bros” were just sore losers. I’ve felt all along that the narrative is false but the argument has been limited to the speculations of loyalists versus the speculations of Progressives.
But then, Donna Brazile put out her book, ‘Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House,’ and confirms that the DNC was, in fact, working FOR Hillary and against Bernie. Berners, of course, seized on the revelation and claimed vindication. As it happens, Progressives were right. The loyalists were wrong.
Of course, the Democratic Party issued a bit of push-back against the charges, sending out their talking heads to opine that the deal that gave Clinton control of the DNC only applied to the general “election.” The push-back only lasted about a day, though, as it was revealed that the agreement was signed in August, 2015 – nearly a full year before she became the nominee.
…and then, in Willie Brown’s Chronicle column dated November 4, 2017, he wrote this:
Former Democratic Party Chair Donna Brazile told the truth about how Hillary Clinton’s operation took over the Democratic National Committee and used it to help her beat Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential primaries.
And guess what? There was nothing wrong with that. Nothing corrupt or dishonest.
Like it or not, political parties are private businesses. The DNC was broke, and Clinton bailed it out. And like any investor in a business being saved from bankruptcy, Clinton had the right to do what she wanted to do with the operation. After all, she was paying the bills.
She not only took over the operation, she turned it into an extension of her campaign-fundraising machine, through which millions of dollars could be collected over and above the usual limits on presidential candidates. That was smart – and legal.
She did what Barack Obama should have done a long time ago – try to put the Democratic Party in a position to be of assistance to the top candidate.
Yes, Bernie Sanders was the loser in the play, so now his followers are screaming. But Bernie is only nominally a Democrat. He’s always held himself apart from the party operation, and the party owed him nothing.
The real loser in the Clinton party takeover was then-Vice President Joe Biden, who realized too late that the game was tilted and decided not to get into the race.
It’s too bad for Joe, but he was asleep at the switch.
The fact that the Democratic Party was almost bankrupt was common knowledge in the Obama camp. the fact that they didn’t do anything about it was also common knowledge.
Clinton offered to do something about it – and as a result, she got something out of it.
That’s politics.
True, that. But why let someone run in the Democratic primaries if you’re not really going to simply facilitate a fair process? I imagine the Democrats thought Bernie would come and go – flash in the pan kind of thing. Then it turned out HE was the more popular candidate – SO popular the DNC had to resort to…machinations to get Hillary the nomination for which she had already paid.
Party loyalty. SO loyal, in fact, that by the time Hillary fainted with Pneumonia in September of 2016, Brazile feared the Clinton campaign had taken on “the odor of failure.” Brazile considered trying to replace Clinton as the nominee. She writes that she considered Joe Biden. Party first, you see. She set her sights on a party guy – not even a candidate – not the actual candidate she’d had to cheat to beat.
I like Biden but he hadn’t participated in the primary process. I’m glad they didn’t do that. Leapfrogging Biden over Sanders would have caused the Berners to actually throw the actual chairs the loyalists pretended had been thrown. Anyway, we know now that Brazile couldn’t have made the switch. Clinton had already bought the nomination…
It seems to me that all of this confusion on the left happened because we ALL bought into the advertising of a private company. When the DNC said they were going to facilitate a fair primary process it was just an advertising slogan but everybody, Democrats and Progressives alike, foolishly thought we’d be getting a fair and honest process. The DNC, however, never had any intention of doing any such thing. Card-carrying politicians only need apply. The DNC’s job is to elect a Democrat and, apparently, if they can’t get a card-carrying Democrat into the Oval Office, they’re okay with a card-carrying Republican…even if it’s Trump…
The irony, here, is that Trump wasn’t elected because Progressives refused to align themselves with the group that had just so thoroughly screwed them (right along with the rest of the country) as the loyalists charge. The ACTUAL problem was that the Democrats refused to align themselves with an independent who had always worked with the Dems but wasn’t a “party man.”
So…thanks to the Democrats – the official arm of the party along with the willfully blinded, lock-step loyalists, Trump is President. None of these revelations will change that. But I’ll tell you this: I’m glad I don’t have to listen to them pretend it was Bernie’s fault anymore…
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