The Horse Race
The pattern I’m perceiving is that Bernie Sanders wins moral victories in states with low delegate counts. Where he wins in states with more delegates, he does so by only a small margin. And even if he manages to further reduce Hillary Clinton’s lead in pledged delegates, the superdelegates are the ‘fix’ for Clinton. And one way or another, this ‘fix’ is what the Democratic Party has been about for the last forty years.
I understand Sanders’ decision to run as a Democrat. This is an institutionalized two-party system; winning the Democratic Party nomination truly did offer him his best shot in a situation where third party or independent runs function as ‘spoilers,’ meaning that Sanders would have split the left vote from the not-quite-so-far right vote, easing the path for a Republican candidate. But the Democratic Party establishment was determined to shut Sanders down.[1] And they have.
That’s one reason I object to voting: Participation legitimizes a system the prevents real change,[2] even the very limited and extremely inadequate change that Sanders promises. And our survival as a species depends on real change.[3]
Associated Press, “Sanders’ win in Hawaii caucuses caps a 3-victory day,” Los Angeles Times, March 27, 2016, http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-sanders-wins-hawaii-20160327-story.html
References
- [1]Ryan Cooper, “Hillary Clinton and the awful risk of winning ugly,” Week, December 21, 2015, http://theweek.com/articles/595141/hillary-clinton-awful-risk-winning-ugly; Christian Drake, “New Information Shows DNC Violated Its Own Rules When It Shut Down Sanders Campaign Data Access,” Addicting Info, December 19, 2015, http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/12/19/new-information-shows-dnc-violated-its-own-rules-when-it-shut-down-sanders-campaign-data-access/; Jonathan Easley, “Dem rivalry takes nasty turn,” Hill, December 19, 2015, http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/263784-dem-rivalry-take-nasty-turn; Ben Kamisar, “Sanders sues Democratic Party,” Hill, December 18, 2015, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/263779-sanders-sues-democratic-party; Lauren McCauley, “Thumb on the Scale? DNC Backs Off Bernie But Questions of Neutrality Linger,” Common Dreams, December 19, 2015, http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/12/19/thumb-scale-dnc-backs-bernie-questions-neutrality-linger; Greg Sargent, “The DNC needs to restore Bernie Sanders’ access to voter data — fast,” Washington Post, December 18, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/12/18/the-dnc-needs-to-restore-bernie-sanders-access-to-voter-data-fast/; Megan R. Wilson, “DNC rolls back restrictions on lobbyist donations,” Hill, February 12, 2016, http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/269266-dnc-rolls-back-restrictions-on-lobbyist-donations; Caitlin Yilek, “Ex-Obama adviser: DNC ‘putting finger on scale’ for Hillary,” Hill, December 18, 2015, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/263792-ex-obama-adviser-on-sanders-scandal-dnc-putting-finger-on↩
- [2]David Benfell, “Why I do not vote,” Not Housebroken, February 25, 2016, https://disunitedstates.org/?p=8743↩
- [3]David Benfell, “‘We have found the enemy, and he is us’ — and our system of social organization,” March 6, 2013, https://parts-unknown.org/drupal7/journal/2013/03/06/we-have-found-enemy-and-he-us-and-our-system-social-organization↩