Democrats have nothing to gain be telling Bernie and his supporters to go to hell

[Ken Burch]

We need support wherever we can get it.

We need people willing to do the hard work of electing Democrats. Young activist types are the people most likely to do that work, if we simply make them feel welcome and make it clear that this is a place that is hospitable to what they stand for .

And we need to be the party of those left out in the cold by the status quo. Even with the intemperance they sometimes display in expressing their opinions, the people drawn to the Sanders message have a better handle on how to do that and how to connect with the voters we need to win over(without abandoning our current base)than anyone defending the status quo approach against them.

It's simple...if we say we won't stand up to corporate power, if we put the rich man's priority of low inflation and deficit reduction over the people's priorities of full employment, climate justice and an end to poverty(which is what treating Bernie and his supporters must mean), we are choosing to repeat the 2016 result...over and over and over again.

We'll be choosing not to even try to win anymore-because making those choices means making it impossible to increase our vote totals anywhere.

We'll be stuck forever where we were in November-never winning more than 49% in any presidential election (and thus never winning in the Electoral College again)never retaking Congress, never recovering ground in any state legislature). What would we gain be choosing never to be popular as a party again. never to stand for anything again, no longer having any reason to exist?

Why stay with what we know can never work?

That's what fomenting an anti-Bernie backlash means folks...it means choosing permanent defeat.

Bernie will never be our nominee...but we stand for nothing if we make him a prophet without honor and if we drive his supporters away, if we make it clear that his campaign's values will not be part of this party, if we vow(as doing all of that means we must vow)that nothing will change from here on in.

And yes, there are other progressives in the party-but we all know that, if Bernie and his supporters are driven away, those other progressives can never win the argument within the party. The "all that matters is the big donors" faction will always guarantee that the party doesn't take progressive positions on any issues other than those that don't threaten the rich and those that can't liberate anyone.

Do we WANT to be stuck in November, 2016, for the rest of eternity?

Do any of us believe we can win as a party with no passion, a party that can never feel the fierce urgency of now? A party that would NEVER say "We Can't Wait!"?


Of course not. We know better than that.

So why even chance it?