BernieCrat’s Not-So-Progressive Take Over Attempt
The June, 2017 meeting in Chicago of the second Bernie Sanders “People’s Summit” contained the usual amount of accusations of “Bernie would have won” and conspiracy theories that the extreme left is known for. But the temperature in this meeting had a different tone. Instead of just blind and unwavering support for Sanders, the 4,000 attendees began making plans to take over the Democratic Party.
As per the Mother Jones article: “Over three days at the sprawling McCormick Center, they huddled in small groups to discuss best practices for organizing, lessons learned from 2016, and how to prevent, er, Bernout. The sessions ranged from trainings on nonviolent resistance (attendees were sequestered in a breakout room where they took turns role-playing as protesters and police) to PowerPoint presentations on neoliberalism and the emerging possibility of “utopia.”
While you have to give the group credit for trying, there are a number of problems with everything associated with their cause. Instead of creating their own third party, they are attempting to move the millions of Democrats to the back row and replace them with their idealistic selves; something Democrats are not standing for.
The Sanders supporters, aka “BernieCrats” have been making attempts for Democratic Party takeovers in some of the nation’s smaller elections. While they have had some success in areas that have been unhappy and disgruntled with the Trump regime, their “wins” have come at a cost. The group has been making shaky deals with their ideologies, with many throwing equal rights for women including Roe v: Wade, under the bus. If you listen to their loud and angry rhetoric, it is a demand for their way and to hell with everyone else. They have established their own “litmus test of purity” and thus far, very few political front runners have passed it. All the while they viciously attack any of the potential hopefuls on the Democratic side as “neoliberals”, often spewing less-than-accurate propaganda from their Sanders sites about everyone from Cory Booker to Kamala Harris.
What began as a so-called takeover in the Los Angeles election ended up fizzling out as Democrats showed up in large numbers to outweigh the BernieCrats. Known as “kiss-of-death Sanders”, a majority of the political candidates that he and his group have supported, have lost. In his endorsement of 37 candidates in 2017, 25 have lost and the 12 that have won were already in areas that were not being challenged by a strong Democratic candidate.
BernieCrats are the first to come forward yelling and ranting about an April, 2017 online poll called the Harvard-Harris survey that lists Sanders as the most popular politician in Washington, D.C. It should be noted that this poll is not listed on either the Harvard or Harris websites and “online polls” are notoriously incorrect and never used as a baseline. In this case, the poll was conducted among 2,027 voters, supposedly representing the nation. At best, this would be considered as a “Grade D poll”, but facts have never deterred the BernieCrats.
Amidst all of the rally screaming, the BernieCrats are realizing that their aggressive and childish attitude is not swaying the real Democrats, so they are advancing into other areas, most notably, trying to appeal to unhappy Republican Trump supporters. You see, as loud as they are, they lack the real numbers to make any serious dent and so they are willing to let some of their liberal focus go to bring the conservatives over. This is a deadly move on their part as they focus on single or even double issue topics and sell their souls to get support.
There have been continuing questions regarding some of the Sanders campaign donations from the 2016 Presidential run, especially because he has established his political party of “Our Revolution” as a nonprofit in 2016. This means that he will not be held to the same reporting standards for donations and funding as other political parties.
Sanders continues to show up on a variety of news media shows and his message has covered everything from early willingness to work with Trump to his long-held single payer healthcare and when it comes to the latter, many of his ideas for a national healthcare plan originated as part of the plan put together by Hillary Clinton. (But don’t tell the BernieCrats that, they are still busy yelling “burn the witch”)
Sanders supporters have had a demographic of mostly young white people with a percentage of older whites. They are expanding their reach and have inducted more people of color, but it still isn’t enough. Like any squeaky wheel, they will glean a level of support from the unhappy, the angry or the disillusioned, but real Democrats are recognizing that the true battle is in flipping enough states to balance out the House and the Senate.
As long as BernieCrats continue to act like demanding children, they will not be invited to the table to talk.
