What a ride!
A year ago Bernie Sanders was a little-known political oddity, at best. He was a junior senator from a small New England state, a 74-year-old political Independent with few friends in Congress, a Socialist at heart who had been railing against the wealthy for 50 years. In Vermont “Bernie” was a brand; beyond its borders ice cream makers Ben & Jerry were far better known. When Sanders announced his run for the Democratic presidential nomination last April, the political class shrugged.
[OPINION: Sanders Is the Future for the Democrats, Even If Clinton Is the Present]
“I welcome him into the race,” Hillary Clinton tweeted. Then she ignored him.
Suddenly something remarkable — perhaps unique in American politics — transpired. Sanders put up a web site calling for a “political revolution” against a “rigged economy” that had caused unprecedented income inequality. He struck political gold. Hundreds of people showed up at his first campaign stops in New Hampshire. Tens of thousands jammed his rallies in Dallas, Phoenix and Portland, Oregon. Inspired by his rants against the wealthy and the “rigged economy,” they chanted his name and contributed to his campaign. He started raising eye-popping millions of dollars. Sanders won New Hampshire and Michigan and states from coast to coast. Students and workers rallied to “Feel the Bern.” Out of nowhere, the political nobody was seriously challenging the Clinton Machine.
Now — with Clinton’s mix of pledged and superdelegates pushing her over the top even before Tuesday nights primaries in California, New Jersey and elsewhere — Bernie’s amazing ride seems to be coming to an end. Sanders and his supporters will argue that he’s won dozens of states and attracted millions of voters. All true. They will point to polls that say Sanders can beat Republican candidate Donald Trump. Perhaps. But Clinton has the number of delegates to make her the Democratic nominee. Arithmetic trumps rhetoric. Sanders’ campaign is cooked.
What next? How will Sanders come down from his exhilarating, intoxicating year? Can he embrace Clinton, link arms with the Democrats and join the battle against Trump? Will he try to keep his political revolution alive? How can he maintain his momentum?
Democratic regulars hope the answer is yes. “He’s an opportunist, not an ideologue,” says one Democratic political consultant who worked for both Barack Obama and Clinton. “He has to wind up supporting her.”
Not necessarily. Sanders has never followed anyone’s script. The politician I profiled in ” Why Bernie Sanders Matters” is too ill-tempered to cooperate with Clinton and the Democrats. He’s never been a joiner. Why expect him to start now? Moreover, he lacks the skill set and the temperament to keep his revolution alive.
Let’s start with the fact that Sanders is not a Democrat. He’s an independent who calls himself a democratic socialist. He tolerates Democrats. He’s using their primary to burnish his brand. During his run for the 2004 Democratic Party nomination, former Gov. Howard Dean, like Sanders a Vermonter, said he represented the “democratic wing of the Democratic Party.” Sanders would say he represents the “socialist wing of the Democratic Party.” His run might have made “socialist” less of a political epithet, but that doesn’t mean Democrats (or the rest of the country) are willing to adopt the “s-word” in any manner.
Bear in mind that Bernie Sanders has spent the past year — and the last month especially — railing against “the establishment.” Squeezed into a narrow lane by his shrinking path to the nomination, Sanders has taken to branding anyone not on his side as “part of the establishment,” along the way roping in any progressives daring to align with Clinton. Fine. But he cannot then suddenly turn around, anoint Clinton and join that reviled establishment, right? His followers would smell hypocrisy and cry foul.
(Let’s put aside the twin hypocrisies of Sanders skewering the establishment when he happens to be a member of the U.S. Senate, arguably the epitome of the elite and arguing that the party’s establishment — the superdelegates — should hand him the nomination.)
[PHOTOS: Who Supports Bernie Sanders?]
Regardless of whether Sanders supports Clinton in any form or fashion, will he attempt to build a movement with the millions of millennials, workers and progressives enraged and energized by his jeremiads against the wealthy? My assessment: No way.
The Sanders I followed and portrayed lacks the skill set to build a lasting movement. He’s well-equipped to launch acid critiques, list his litany of complaints and vent frustrations. His strength is tearing down. A leader, on the other hand, has to build up. Examine Sanders’ career and you will discover the only thing he’s built is his own brand. In Vermont he decimated the Democratic Party but didn’t build a progressive party in its place. To the contrary, when progressives built a statewide organization, Sanders refused to join.
Sanders famously points to labor leader Eugene Debs as his political role model. Between 1900 and 1920, Debs ran for president five times as a candidate with the Socialist Party of America. Riding a red train, he whistle-stopped the country defending workers and exhorting voters to support him. Debs was jailed for his protests, the last time in 1918 for denouncing U.S. involvement in World War I. He campaigned from prison and still got a million votes. Debs was no flash in the presidential pan. He founded the Socialist Party, built it into a national force and sacrificed for his beliefs.
Sanders is no Debs. His year-long crusade is done. Good thing for Sanders that he’s two years into a six-year term. He can go back to being the junior senator from Vermont who also ran for president.
More from U.S. News
Whatever You Think of Hillary Clinton, Savor America’s First Female Nominee
Will Sanders Supporters Actually Go ‘Bernie or Bust’ When Clinton Wins?
The Real Political Revolution Would Be Getting Young People to Vote
Bernie Sanders Can’t Sustain His Revolution Long Term originally appeared on usnews.com
