Only Sanders, who has been building a grassroots movement of progressives for years, and who has stuck to his progressive platform of Medicare for All, free public college, student loan forgiveness, strong support for Social Security and a Green New Deal of shifting the nation away from fossil fuels while providing transitional employment for those workers in the energy sector who lose their jobs, shows his ability to build a coalition of Democrats, independents and disaffected working-class voters, including Republicans, that can unseat President Trump.
Because stealing the nomination from Sanders this time would be even more egregious than it was in 2016, and because it would in itself likely hand the election to Trump, progressives need to make it crystal clear: If Sanders wins the most delegates in this primary season and is denied the nomination because of the votes of unelected so-called Super Delegates, his progressive base will collectively walk away and not vote for the party's candidate in November.
I am willing to make that promise here and now: I will not vote for some loser candidate, and certainly not for the anti-union, misogynist, racist, war-supporting, unquestioning Israel-championing, uber-billionaire Bloomberg if Sanders wins the most delegates and isn't the party's nominee.
I've already had liberal friends who are looking to Bloomberg as the "Great (Obscenely Wealthy) White Hope" who will defeat Trump say to me, "Oh no! Not again!" at my latest decision (Note: I voted for Green candidate Jill Stein in Pennsylvania in 2016). In fairness, that comment was made before Bloomberg's disastrous first debate outing, but I think they're probably still not switching their support to Sanders even the ones who admit they like him, and say they'll vote for him if becomes the party's nominee. If you're like them, please read this article by my friend David Swanson about Bloomberg: http://warisacrime.org/2020/02/21/bloomberg-has-spent-enough-to-give-a-nickel-to-every-person-whose-life-hes-ever-damaged/
But here's the thing. If we progressives make it clear now, not at the convention, or after the convention, that we will not support a Democratic candidate who gets the nomination through the backing of Super Delegate votes, that may deter the party leadership from committing suicide again as they did in 2016.
Meanwhile, there is a good way to solve the problem of Sanders not winning a majority of delegates and a clean first-ballot nomination victory. The reason it is so hard to get a majority is a combination of the number of candidates still running in the primaries, and a Democratic Party rule that all candidates who receive at least 15% of the votes in a primary get delegates (Republicans have winner-take-all primaries). Even if some Democratic candidates only get 15, 16 or 18 percent of a primary, those totals can deny the winner getting more than 49% of the total vote.
So Sanders, if he has a plurality, but comes up short with, say 40% of the delegates by the end of the primaries (the amount that NY Times polling guru Nate Silver says he's likely to pile up in the primaries), could offer the Vice President spot on his ticket to Warren, in return for her asking her delegates to vote for him on the first ballot. That would be a win-win. Sanders would get the nomination without the Super Delegates having a chance to block him, and Warren, who is at this point unlikely to get the nomination on her own, would be well positioned to run for the presidency in 2024, when Sanders would be 82, and would likely not want a second term. Since Warren largely supports all of Sanders' policies, he would know that his legacy issues would be continued by her, and progressives could unify around the ticket.
Even if the combined delegate count won by Sanders and Warren was still slightly below the required 50% + one to win the nomination (Silver projects Warren will ultimately win only 5% of the delegates), they'd surely come so close that Sanders would have to receive the nomination by acclimation at that point or total disaster would ensue, reminiscent of Chicago in 1968! (Anyhow, Sanders seems to be gaining as time goes by and if he comes close to sweeping Super Tuesday on May 3, he Silver may have to upgrade his expectations for how many delegates Sanders will ultimately win.)
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
4
3
2
