General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Is the (D) behind the name more important than the voting record? [View all]wildeyed
(11,243 posts)We are talking about Bernie Sanders, right?
On the national stage, Sanders functions as an activist, not a politician. Activists work outside of party structures to hold politicians accountable but they don't do the hard work of finding consensus and implementing policy. I have huge respect for activists. Activists play an important role in our democracy. But it is not the activist's job to get involved in the nitty-gritty of making the sausage. And it is not their job to be liked by politicians.
Sanders wants to have his cake and eat it too. He wants to be the activist who holds Democrats' feet to the fire on the big moral issues. As a result, he is not well liked by rank and file Dems. He identifies as independent, criticizes them publicly and is a general PITA. Which is ok if he is an activist. Not his job to be liked. But when he ALSO wants to make party policy, then there is conflict.
Ironically, if Clinton won, he would be on much better footing. But because he failed to deliver his base on election day, his brand is degraded. In essence, he failed to hold his caucus together. No greater crime in the political party arena.
Nothing is as cut and dried in politics as you are making it out to be. Sanders represents a constituency that would normally be under the Dem coalition umbrella and he caucuses with Dems. In that sense he is part of the Democratic Party. But he is not part of group who runs the party day-to-day. He doesn't have sweat equity in actually running the party. And he does not consistently deliver votes to the party, the only thing that the party really respects. So in that sense, he is not part of the Democratic Party.
It's really two separate things that are called by the same name, now that I think about it. We should call all the groups represented by the Democrats the 'Democratic Coalition' and call the people who run the fundraising, crunch electoral math and do the vote whipping on a day to day basis the 'Democratic Party'. It would be more correct and less confusing, don't you think? Bernie is def a coalition member, def not a party member.