Unlike some who support Hillary Clinton, I have no interest in wishing to see Bernie Sanders stop campaigning any sooner than he wants to. He’s fought a noble battle, raised important issues, helped to push the party in a generally healthy direction, and made things far more interesting than they would otherwise have been.
Keep giving speeches, Bernie. Keep telling Mrs. Clinton it isn’t over, even though it is. Keep doing whatever you want to do because you’ve earned the right.
Others, however, take a different view, folks like Steve Magowan writing in the Burlington Free Press, Sen. Sanders’ home town newspaper.
He writes in part:
Sen. Sanders cares deeply about the underprivileged and has argued loudly for them all his long political career. I applaud and respect him for that. However, the greatest advances for the poor in this country have taken place only when strong Democrat leaders with deep party roots could forge legislation that changed the face of our country. This happened under FDR and LBJ and happened under President Obama when he had the House and Senate behind him to pass the Affordable Care Act.
Sen. Sanders cannot win this primary, and there will be no revolution. He must accept that. If he cares about the poor and underprivileged, he should use his new-found bully pulpit to gather support for down-ticket Democrats so that we can have true change. His one-man band revolution is going nowhere and only serves to keep right-wing Republicans in power in Washington. Senator, the contest is over. It is time to stand down.
As I said, I don’t care if Sen. Sanders steps down later rather than sooner. Where Mr. Magowan’s comments resonate with me is in his understanding of American political institutions.
Bernie Sanders has always been, as Magowan writes, a one-man band and not simply because he claims to stand against the political establishment but because the political establishment understands, as Sen. Sanders does not, that it takes a party, it takes allies, it takes a broad coalition to fashion and pass legislation that positively impacts the lives of Americans.
Unless Sanders’ revolutionaries want to start shooting people, they are going to have to convince a lot more people that they would know what to do with political power should they find themselves possessing it.
Stay in the race, Bernie, for as long as you like, and while you are at it maybe you can take a moment to educate your passionate followers about what it really requires to make tangible, significant change in the lives of the people you obviously care so much about.
It would be a good use of your time.