Yesterday, some two million Americans cast their votes for Bernie Sanders, in addition to the 10.5 million who had voted for him in earlier Democratic primaries. But Hillary Clinton has simply out-polled him, garnering an estimated 13.5 million votes even prior to yesterday’s final set of state contests, the most populous of which (CA, NJ, and NM) she easily won. In terms of pledged delegates awarded on the basis of the primaries, Clinton won a total of 2,203 delegates, while Sanders racked up just 1,828. Yet Sanders cannot bring himself to concede defeat: to acknowledge that she, rather than he, is ‘the people’s choice.’
All along, Hilary has had an advantage stemming from the fact that she enjoys the favor of many Democratic super-delegates, who do indeed wield an out-sized influence when it comes to determining the party’s presidential nominee. The super-delegate system is a holdover from the days when party officials were entirely free to select at the convention any candidate on whom a majority of them could manage to agree. Senator Sanders claims that this is undemocratic and unfair; but he would not make this claim if more of the party officials were inclined to favor him.
He is, in fact, exactly the kind of interloper whose self-interest is at odds with the communitarian nature of a political party, which requires internal discipline, compromise, and self-sacrifice, to remain ideologically coherent and unified. Whereas Hillary Clinton has spent her entire career working within the network of the Democracy, Senator Sanders joined it only when he declared his candidacy, no doubt realizing that it would benefit him structurally. But, having never given anything of himself to the party per se, he can hardly be surprised that its most influential members don’t feel they owe much consideration to him.
Sanders has little in common with his arch-rival, Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee. Yet the two men are the same in failing to grasp the huge role that manners play in the presidency. The president is the face of the nation, and sometimes that face is obliged to wear a gracious smile despite inward longings to sport a frown. When, many months ago, I asked a friend her impressions of Sanders, she replied that he behaved as though he were still in college. He does indeed resemble those intense young disciples we knew back then, with their no-frills backpacks and doctrinaire ideals. Now in his 70s, Sanders has gained a fervent following, by feeding voters a vision that, without the support of a party, he would have no means of realizing, even if he were to rise to the presidency.
Ultimately, Sanders has deceived his followers, both by professing an imagined injury at the hands of Democracy and by perpetuating a fantastically exaggerated conception of presidential power.
Image:
‘The Day After: Licked, and the World Laughs at You’
(Puck Magazine), from this source.
Today I saw on TV that Sanders said he was going to compete in the Washington, D.C., primary. Indeed right now he seems to STILL be unwilling to concede the nomination to Hillary. Soooooo, in the late morning today President Obama officially endorsed Hillary, thus ending the Sanders campaign for him. . . . That story was all over the internet today. . . . As usual a well-written post.
You’re right–there is still one last primary next week (didn’t mean to slight WDC–I thought it had already voted)–But the respective achievements of the rival candidates will likely remain much the same. Sanders will still have a huge number of pledged delegates who will attend the convention, so perhaps this fact will have a bigger-than-expected influence on the Dems’ platform/goals. But the establishment hasn’t shown signs of changing much, so despite all this is likely to remain stuck in a stale centrism. Thanks for your well-informed comment. SB