Why Bernie Is Helping, Not Hurting the Democrats [View all]

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/36992-focus-why-bernie-is-helping-not-hurting-the-democrats

Election day is still 6 months away. There is plenty time for the Democratic Party to make the Sanders supporters welcome. If Bernie suspended his campaign tomorrow and just went back to work in the Senate it would be like bursting a bubble. The movement he has launched would be devastated. That movement needs to continue, and if the Democrats embrace it they will grow. If they continue to ask for surrender, they will lose an opportunity to build the party.

Of course letting the movement in will change the party. That is what the “new” Democrats fear. The end of the third way is near, and the Democratic Party will soon be representing working people again.

It’s not about Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton; it is about representing the people or representing the corporate elite. Show us in Philadelphia that we are welcome by accepting real reform in the party. If the convention in Philadelphia is organized to be an infomercial for Hillary Clinton and the Sanders delegates are silenced, that will hurt the party. If we are welcomed and the process is fair, allowing us to put our stamp on the party’s future, we will help grow the party. If we are ignored the Democratic Party will continue to shrink, and many Sanders supporters will go back to being Green or Independent.

It is those voters who allow Sanders to poll better against Trump than Hillary. Bernie can help bring Independents into the fold, if the party is ready for change. Bernie’s supporters are not ready now to jump to Hillary. Bernie holds them together, so he needs to keep the movement alive. If he doesn’t, the Democratic Party will squander a golden opportunity to expand.

While the benefit to the party is clear, it would also be a mistake for Sanders to drop out before every vote is cast. You have to remember that Hillary Clinton thought she could convince the superdelegates in 2008.