Three Cheers for the Democratic Establishment: Finally Fights Back Against Bernie

True to form, the Bernie Bros started whining as soon as it was apparent that their hero lost the primary in South Carolina, and it only got louder and more pronounced as Joe Biden (D-Confusion) swept the field on Super Tuesday. And brace yourself, because the whining is only going to get worse as Bernie Sanders (D-Havana) continues to lose primary contests.

If Obama and other establishment Democrats manage to steer the party towards supporting the cadaverous Biden, spurning Sanders in the process, Sanders’ supporters will be beyond outraged—and may very well sit out the election entirely, Perrotta writes.

The primary subject of the Bernie Bro’s outrage is the fact that the “party establishment”—political speech for boogeyman—has rigged the primary against Sanders. And there is some truth to this claim. As Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar dropped out of the race and fell in line behind Biden, reports began to surface that former President Barack Obama spoke to Buttigieg on the phone and convinced him to bow out and endorse the gentleman from the great state of confusion. There are similar rumors that Obama also spoke to Klobuchar, but those remain unconfirmed.

“As party leaders have ceded the power to choose their party’s candidates to the rank-in-file party members, their nominating processes have become more chaotic and less capable of producing solid, reasonable candidates.”

Bernie Bros were apoplectic after it became clear that the Democratic National Convention rigged the primary in 2016 in favor of Hillary Clinton. If Obama and other establishment Democrats manage to steer the party towards supporting the cadaverous Biden, spurning Sanders in the process, Sanders’ supporters will be beyond outraged—and may very well sit out the election entirely. 

I have previously written in the pages of the Marist Circle that the establishment leaders of the two major parties should take more control over the nominating process. Parties are important institutions that when they are at their best, impose order on a disparate electorate, work to build governing coalitions, and incentivise cooperation and compromise. As party leaders have ceded the power to choose their party’s candidates to the rank-in-file party members, their nominating processes have become more chaotic and less capable of producing solid, reasonable candidates.

“ Instead, Trump-skeptical Republican primary voters were forced to watch one party insider after the other give fiery speeches denouncing Trump, and watch Trump win more and more delegates.”

A Republican Party that retained even a marginal amount of control over its presidential nominating process never would have nominated Donald Trump. Had party leaders been able to exercise more influence over how delegates were allocated and where money flowed, they could have ensured the nomination of a higher caliber candidate and repudiated both Trump and Trumpism. Instead, Trump-skeptical Republican primary voters were forced to watch one party insider after the other give fiery speeches denouncing Trump, and watch Trump win more and more delegates.

I don’t know if it is true that Obama intervened to deny Sanders the nomination. What I do know, however, is that Obama should have intervened to deny Sanders the nomination. Obama himself was a popular president, but under his watch the Democratic Party was plunged into debt and democratic politicians lost hundreds of seats across the country. Mark my words, if Sanders is elected president, his party will hemorrhage senators and governors from purple and light blue states, state legislature after state legislature will fall to successive red waves and there will be no Democratic representatives outside of D+10 districts.

This would be an apocalyptic outcome for the “Democratic establishment.” And, Sanders is not a Democrat, he’s an Independent. Sanders has held public office since 1981, and yet has spent barely more than two years as a registered Democrat. Party nominations are for party members, not for political grifters.

The Democratic Party is in the business of winning elections, not just in deep blue states like Vermont, New York and California, but also in swing states like Virginia, Michigan and Minnesota. If the party leaders think that Sanders will destroy their party, a party with which he has a merely transactional and often antagonistic relationship, it would be malpractice for them not to stop him. So yes, the Democratic Party establishment is going to do everything in their power to stack the deck against Sanders and make Biden the nominee. We should all be thankful for their efforts.