I never held much stock in the idea that centrist Democrats would actually band together and try to stop Bernie from getting the nomination, but after Pete, Beto, and Amy all showed up for Biden yesterday, I am beginning to think that a fix, though not in, might be in the works.
When I read Michelle Goldberg this morning, and her take is that Bernie cannot attract new voters to win against Trump, it really started to sink in how much Bernie scares the crap out of mainstream Democrats.
For this piece, I will do a thought exercise. This is not what I currently believe, but I want to do an experiment.
Let’s just say that all of the middle of the road Democrats all are right about Bernie; if Sanders gets the nomination, he loses to Trump. Well, how did that happen and what does that mean?
If the centrists continue down their path of trying to pack the vote against Bernie, and create a contested convention where Sanders loses the nomination, then the centrists have just handed Trump a victory. It plays into the narrative that “elitists” know better than the people, and that’s how democracy dies, they would say. Also, if the Democrats do this, then the majority of Bernie supporters won’t show up. (They did it in 2016, remember?) Finally, it sends the message to the people of this country that incremental to no change is better. Sadly, mainstream Democrats aren’t listening to the rest of this country who are actually hurting, which is why they are looking for a Bernie to shake things up. That was a big reason why people voted for Trump, and the mainstream Republicans tried to do the same thing to derail that nomination. They failed and we got Trump.
I don’t know for certain what the right answer is. Luckily, no one does, but denying voters their choice is not a solution. It will only make things worse.
