General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Chris Cillizza: Bernie Sanders still doesnt know what the Democratic party stands for [View all]Tom Rinaldo
(22,911 posts)Prior to his run for President he was all of the things you mentioned above:
"I know that Bernie caucuses with the Democrats, I know that he votes with the Democrats almost all of the time and I get that that makes him ideologically aligned with the party"
All of that gave him a minor role in the Democratic Party over the course of his many terms in Congress.
What changed that was the undeniable fact that with little name recognition outside of Vermont, with almost no major donors backing his campaign, with no national machine backing him, and with little media attention given him prior to the Iowa caucus, Bernie electrified large crowds of people who came out to see him, mounted a very serious campaign for the Democratic nomination, and broke all records for mass small donation fund raising.
All of that is objectively beyond dispute, but some would add to the above that Bernie sensed the restless mood of the electorate better than almost anyone else in the Democratic Party leadership in the year preceding the presidential election. He certainly showed an ability to connect with some key parts of the electorate who failed to enthusiastically back our ultimate candidate.
Bernie became a national leader as a result of the way he rose to the occasion rather than becoming a mere blip as a little known protest candidate - the fate of ex- Senator Mike Gavin back in 2008 for example. Had Barack Obama not risen to the occasion the way that he did when he delivered the keynote address at the Democratic Convention in 2004, he would not have been the force that he was in Democratic politics in 2008 either.