Sen. Bernie Sanders Prepares A Colossal Blow To The Democratic Party In Vermont's Primary Senate Race
As revealed by a campaign spokeswoman for Bernie Sanders' newly announced re-election bid for his Vermont Senate seat, the independent progressive Senator will run for re-election, decline the nomination, and proceed to run as an independent.
While it's true that the maneuver isn't a new idea (it is, in fact, the same plan implemented by the same person running for the same office twice before.), it is being used at a politically volatile moment for the Democratic Party, and for the modern American ideological left, and for reasons discussed below, the same "1-2 punch" could this time prove to be the single most damaging for any political body in modern American history, and progressives are saying it's long overdue.
The Democratic Party Stands For Nothing
The DNC has, most particularly following the tumultuous 2015-2016 campaign cycle, espoused as its platform innumerable shallow ideas and ambiguous platitudes, with very little in the way of substantive policy. The DNC has been quick to play the shady game of identity politics, foregoing systemic change in lieu of an iconoclastic smokescreen, propping up shallow-minded, deep-pocketed representatives of minority groups instead of candidates vying to change the system that continues to suppress and subjugate the economically disadvantaged. This was reflected in the very campaign slogan of Clinton, "I'm With Her", which did absolutely nothing in the way of reflecting ideology, progressive values, or so much as the desire to feign them. The party has continued this noxious pattern with ideologically ambiguous politicians such as Doug Jones and Tom Perez, who, when asked for policy positions, regurgitates his desire to "put hope back on the ballot". Let's cross our fingers that there will be enough "hope" on the ballot to override the the Republican's "thoughts and prayers". With a candidate such as Sanders injecting himself into the Democrat's electoral system, it forces certain substantive policy issues to be brought to the table and reckoned with, especially in a period of political turmoil, and increased political consciousness, more so than when Sanders employed the same tactic in 2006 or 2012.
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The Progressive Political Paradigm Has Shifted
Thanks in large part to the Sanders campaign for President, progressives have moved the goal posts to the left for acceptance and support among progressive voters. No longer is this a binary choice involving two labels with battling platitudes. It is now a national discussion begging some vital questions, and demanding crucial answers to some fundamental questions regarding American "democracy" awakened by a political independent who is no friend of identity politics. The ambiguity being used as a cloke for political mischief has been called out. The corruption of unlimited money calling the shots in our electoral process has been exposed, and the body politic is more awakened now than in previous elections. The ramifications of this maneuver by Sanders in this political climate are different now than before. Granted the uneasy political climate on the left, and a Democratic Party bleeding support from it's millions of disenfranchised voters, this could easily prove to be a terminal evidence that "party loyalty" is not a mandate for eligibility.
Increasing Support For 3rd Party Candidates
Following Sanders' ouster from the electoral process, millions who decided not to accept the establishmentarian candidate migrated toward write-in candidates, or 3rd party options. Many of whom pledged support for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party, who expressed the desire to see Sanders on the Green Party ticket, and the willingness even to step aside should the independent Senator step up to the plate. Ever since, there has been a constant stream of demands to see Sanders start a 3rd party of his own. With this block of progressive voters being added to the 44% of eligible voters who did not vote in 2016, we are likely to see a progressive movement develop far beyond something that the media and the establishment are able to control. If Sanders were to start a 3rd party, his popularity, and sheer volume of support would make him the leader of the most popular political party in the nation, the captain of a ship of the disenfranchised, the poor, the wretched, the silenced, and the subjugated. This, should it materialize, would inevitably be the death blow to the Democratic Party.
Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust...