General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Keith Ellison: [View all]Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)Is that some are still obsessed, even though Bernie will never be a presidential candidate again, with perpetuating the idea that Bernie was and is fighting for a party that puts white men above everyone else. And that he's some sort of social democratic puppet master.
The demographic base of his primary support was accidental-his campaign and his supporters were never running AGAINST the groups that favored Hillary.
It's enough to say they just didn't communicate well enough with them, and as a result Bernie lost the nomination.
I accept that and I've always accepted that. We're past that.
There's no longer any reason to see things in Sanders v. Obama or Sanders v. Hillary terms, or Sanders supporters v. Hillary/Obama supporters terms.
All that would have happened had Keith prevailed was that the party would have increased its emphasis on fighting economic injustice(while continuing to center social injustice), would have connected more directly to activist politics, and would be a party run more from below than above. Those changes would actually have INCREASED the say of women, LGBTQ people, and people of color within the party. They would commit us to policies that would improve the lives of people in ALL of those groups.
The fact that Keith wanted corporate funding put up to a vote simply means he's committed to internal party democracy. It doesn't mean he didn't personally want the party to move away from corporate funding.
Bernie is just one man. He's not capable of singlehandedly controlling the Democratic Party even if he had wanted to, and Keith is his OWN man, as Tom recognized in offering him a kind of partnership.
At some point, you're going to have to accept that the war is over in this party.
Sanders people and Clinton/Obama people are NOT enemies.