Don't the Sanders supporters understand the facts on the ground? [View all]

[mikehiggins]

I see constant amazement and surprise that all hands are on deck opposing Senator Sanders' campaign. That constantly amazes and surprises me to no end.

Let me spell it out in clear, concise terms that anyone can understand.

EVERYBODY IS AGAINST US.

That is what was meant by "the Establishment" back when this started.

It means anyone with any stake in keeping things going the way they are is going to oppose Sanders like he was going to take money out of their pockets. Well, yeah, he will.

He is going to shake up the system and everyone who has a stake in the system is going to do anything they can to derail his campaign.

And keep in mind that HRC has NO NEED to do anything herself. Everyone who sees the threat Sanders presents to the way things work at this point in time will do whatever they think they need to do to put a stake through the heart of that threat. HRC doesn't have to call Brock to start up memes and such. He is an expert at it. She doesn't have to tell the Blue Review to attack like a rabid pit bull. The owner will do it all on his own. None of these surrogates and spokespeople and liars need any direction from the top. She doesn't have to tell low level election workers to materialize boxes of surrogate forms, almost all overwhelmingly in her favor.

All HRC need do is stumble along in her bubble of praise from her supporters, go plead for bucks from big dollar donors and give quick, pithy rehearsed responses to any question she deems worthy of her attention. Same as it ever was.

All that stands against the Leviathan is a bunch of those "little people" who have to learn about the issues in this campaign from going to a Sanders rally, and then start spreading the word among their friends and relatives and coworkers. THAT is the only path open to Sanders because ALL of the media is in the tank. The mistake is thinking they are in the tank FOR HRC. The reality is that they all have a stake in things going along the way they have been, the way they have become comfortable with since the news stopped being a public service and became Entertainment Tonight. The New York Times? Capehart's Washington Post? What's left of the magazines and daily newspapers?

The pundits now claim that HRC has to move to win over the hearts and minds of the Sanders supporters (and the army ant like network of small donors nourishing the campaign). That would actually be easy to do, in theory, assuming anyone believes any commitment she might make (which is, of course, another question) to work for free tuition, to work to clean up Flint (remember Flint?), put an end to our disastrous (ok, her) disastrous involvement in the Middle East, move towards single payer health care, and break up the hold the wealthiest interests have on our political process, no matter what side of the aisle you're talking about. Simple enough. That was generally the Democratic platform before Bill Clinton and the rich guys on the Third Way front turned politics away from working for the people to standing by the table hoping for scraps.

I have no idea how this is going to turn out. Our only hope, failing a Sanders nomination, is that the GOP will put forth a candidate that even their own voters can't tolerate. What a sad state of affairs.

So, Sanders folks? Stop talking to the trolls and idiots around here and get out on the streets, make phone calls and email friends. There is nothing here for us.