Last week, in the aftermath of the ugliness in Nevada, I offered the Clinton campaign some unsolicited advice. The gist of it was that she’d be better off making some concessions to Sanders about representation on the power (Rules and Platform) committees at the convention than she would be in playing hardball with his delegates.
Sanders is also angered that Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy and former Congressman Barney Frank will be chairing the convention Platform Committee and Rules Committee, respectively, because they’ve both been loud critics of his campaign. That’s the cost of losing, but that doesn’t mean that some concessions can’t be made to give Sanders’s delegates fair representation at the convention.
It’s a small price to pay for tamping down what could emerge as a wildfire with the potential to disrupt the convention, and it has the advantage of being the right thing to do.
If Clinton doesn’t get the party united (and, of course Sanders has to do his part, too), her unfavorables will remain high and the polls will continue to look somewhat close as too many Democrats refuse to tell pollsters that they like or will support her.
If she offers an olive branch here, she will be the main beneficiary, and so will everyone who isn’t relishing a Trump presidency.
I’m not saying that the Clinton campaign was convinced by my argument, but they decided to do pretty much what I recommended.
Sanders was given the power to choose nearly as many members of the Democratic Party platform-writing body as Clinton, who is expected to clinch the nomination next month. That influence resulted from an agreement worked out this month between the two candidates and Democratic Party officials, according to Democratic officials familiar with the arrangement.
Clinton has picked six members of the 15-member committee that writes the platform, and Sanders has named five, the Democrats said Monday ahead of an expected announcement by the Democratic National Committee.
The math is based on the number of popular votes each has received to date, one official said. Democratic Party Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz will name four. The campaign choices were selected in consultation with the campaigns and the DNC from larger slates of 12 and 10 suggested by the campaigns.
Now, you may not be all that impressed with this concession. I don’t know. But Sanders immediately showed what a progressive slate looks like compared to a more mainstream slate.
Sanders’s slate includes James Zogby, a longtime activist on behalf of Palestinian rights as well as a DNC member and official. Zogby currently co-chairs the party’s resolutions committee. His inclusion is a sign of Sanders’s plans to push the party’s policy on Israel toward what he has called a more even-handed approach to the Palestinian cause…
…Chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings was named by Wasserman Schultz. Most others named by Wasserman Schultz and Clinton are party stalwarts or Clinton supporters — the establishment Sanders has railed against to great effect. Sanders’s picks include people from outside the usual sphere of party influence, including a Native American activist and author and racial justice activist Cornel West…
…Sanders also named Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, among his most prominent elected backers, author and environmental activist Bill McKibben and Native American activist Deborah Parker.
The Clinton campaign’s choices are Wendy Sherman, a former top State Department official and Clinton surrogate; Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress and longtime Clinton confidante; Rep. Luis Guttierez of Illinois; Carol Browner, a former director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy; Ohio State Rep. Alicia Reece and Paul Booth of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union.
Clinton’s picks are hardly lacking in progressive voices. Luis Gutiérrez is perhaps the strongest advocate in the party for undocumented workers, for example. A lot of people, including myself, have heard enough from Cornel West, but I have no problem with him serving on the platform committee. Overall, Sanders used his picks to fill in gaps that might have existed if he hadn’t been able to negotiate a better deal.
This is basically what I’ve been hoping for, which is a broader inclusion of progressive voices in the party’s power structures, and that includes having people who are ideologically to my left.
I’m hoping that a lot of the rank-and-file Sanders delegates who show up in Philadelphia will make connections and get hooked into the power structure or even wind up being candidates in the future. Simply gaining such a big concession on the committees was a victory and a clear demonstration of power.
Truthfully, not much more can accomplished than this, and Sanders would be wise to pocket his gains here and begin thinking about next steps outside the nominating process.
I notice he’s still on the offense today, challenging Clinton to debate him in California. I have no beef with that, but I hope he’ll begin tamping down the divisions between his camp and Clinton’s now. The way I see it, that’s what he’s supposed to offer as his end of the deal.
In any case, I advised Sanders to stay in to get more delegates and more influence at the convention. He’s largely accomplished that now. He can still get some more delegates, but not much more influence, so I’m not sure what further aggression on his part can accomplish.
In other words, I’ve supported Sanders up to now, but I’m not going to be sympathetic to more divisiveness from this point forward. And, kudos to the Clinton campaign for thinking about the big picture.
He could be angling to changing the primary rules for the next election. That’s probably the only other left on the table.
I’d give up caucuses (which I really enjoy) in exchange for open primaries across the board.
I don’t particularly care one way or the other about the open vs closed primary question.’
I just think the state party wants a closed primary they have to have clear rules posted about when party change needs to happen and it should not be more than 3 weeks prior to the scheduled primary.
I care a lot about whether they are open or closed. Frankly I see no problem with same day registration in a primary or general election.
On a personal level I find caususes way more fun than primaries.
I hate caucuse for many reasons, primary is that so many people cannot participate– working, sick or incapacitated, young children, etc.
As currently conducted, the caucuses do appear to be inferior to primaries. However, primaries don’t require much participation at all. And in case you missed it, most caucuses allow absentee voting.
I’m beginning to think that caucuses could be a valuable component in a nominating process, but not the way they are currently being done. And maybe not even suitable for an entire state.
Young children? We got a radical here.
This is good news. Well done, Clinton people. Well done, Sanders people.
I hope Sanders stays in, and pushes as hard as possible for what he believes in, almost like democracy. Even if it hurts people’s delicate feelings. So many liberals are deeply uncomfortable with power, even (especially?) when it’s wielded for liberalism.
I’ve supported Sanders up to now, but I’m not going to be sympathetic to timidity from this point forward. I’m a Jew: high-volume disagreement doesn’t bother me. This primary’s nothing. I’ve had more heated arguments about cinnamon raisin bagels.
Listen, don’t even get me started about cinnamon raisin bagels. Next thing they’ll be selling salty babkas.
If it has cinnamon and raisins, it’s not a bagel.
If it has raisins, it’s not food.
.
My theory of the cinnamon raisin bagel is that non-Jews came to the conclusion that a bagel must actually be a type of donut. And then when Jews realized that, they of course agreed.
My every morning breakfast snack.
LUV EM
Especially with vanilla yogurt.
But then again I support Bernie …….
There are ten primaries to go. Apparently you are one of those (mainly on the Clinton side) whose patience with Bernie Sanders campaigning against his primary opponent seems to be at an end. Apparently his ongoing attempt to win votes is just too “divisive”, but strangely enough, this is our election process and it ought to be respected. Above all, the right to vote of voters in the remaining states is no less important than that of the voters in Iowa, NH and SC. Furthermore, this is exactly the path Hillary followed in 2008.
What has put out, the “concession,” is simply an offer — and I don’t see that anything is really in play until the primaries are over. This agrees with your professed principle, voiced many times, that Bernie should get “as many delegates as possible” to have the strongest negotiating position. An offer from one side doesn’t end negotiation. Let’s not strong-arm the process.
Washington State is tomorrow. The Virgin Islands caucus is June 4; the Puerto Rico caucus is June 5; the June 7th primaries are California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota; and a caucus in North Dakota. Finally, DC is June 14th.
I’m not sure this was “an offer.” The reports seem to indicate that it’s an agreement that has been in the works for some time (a month, perhaps). If I am correct, I then agree with Booman. Stop the smears of Clinton and the Democratic Party and try to win votes some other way — all the way through to DC.
Washington Post. May 19, 2016
DNC to OFFER Sanders a Convention Concession
“… the Democratic National Committee plans to OFFER a concession to Sen. Bernie Sanders — seats on a key convention platform committee — but it may not be enough to stop Sanders from picking a fight over the party’s policy positions.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/dnc-to-offer-sanders-a-convention-concession/2016/05/19/9970
6b54-1df4-11e6-8c7b-6931e66333e7_story.html
Relax, This is just starting.
It’s just a head fake. Look, we don’t necessarily have to fight over the policy’s party positions. But I think we need to have a serious input into them. First of all, the issues are of vital importance for the future of this country and the world. Second of all, the more input for Bernie, the more likely Bernie can retain the 25% of his support that’s not “ready for Hillary”, and the more likely we beat Trump. Can I say it any more clearly?
I hear some Hillary supporters saying things like, “We don’t owe them ANYTHING. We WON. We’ve got 51% of the vote, they got 49%.
I hope everybody here understands the utter idiocy of that attitude. You really want to diss 49% of Democrats, drive away millions of independent votes that could become regulars, and doom the future of the party by setting back to the 1990s (which is where a lot of the Clinton loyalists heads are at)?
You keep acting like the ‘49%’ is some monolithic group that will walk away from Clinton in lockstep. Polls don’t reflect that. At this point in time something like 72% say they will go over to Clinton, and like 2008 (then it was like 60% said they would go Obama) that number will surely raise.
Almost certainly a large percentage of that 49%, being Americans, know that second place (called ‘first loser’ in car racing) is lucky to get jack shit from what is called ‘the winner’.
Maybe 3% of the 49% would walk away if Sanders was told to go fuck himself. That is because, deep deep down, most don’t want to be around the first loser.
Just to be clear…yes, I believe Clinton should give the first loser that 12 dollar plastic trophy to put on his mantle. I’m just saying that the 49% are not monolithic like you imply.
.
I never said it or implied it. I’m talking about the independents. Please don’t tell me Hillary shouldn’t care about the independents. Even she at least wants their votes. The point is, she has to earn them, and that’s for her to do. Sanders can’t even get them to vote for her if they don’t want to.
The numbers are all Sanders supporters, not just Democrats that support him.
sanders busted
He lost. Sure, she should give him his due. But let’s not pretend that there is some huge number of liberals that won’t vote for her in December if he does not get a pony.
Americans just don’t care all that much for losers. And democratic losers are double poison.
.
Nalbar, The very fact that those numbers consist of Democrats + independents proves my point. If only the registered Democrats vote for her in the general, she could very well lose. As it is, it’s going to be tough for her to get many of those independent votes.
Wow, just wow.
.
Exactly. Wow.
As Nate Silver says (May 19):
“If Clinton wins over those [undecided independent Sanders] voters, she’ll gain a few percentage points on Trump in national and swing state polls, and the race will potentially look more like it did in March and April, with Clinton having a fairly comfortable lead over Trump. If not, the general election could come down to the wire.”
Now, how do you suppose she’s going to win them over?
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-hidden-importance-of-the-bernie-sanders-voter/
let’s not pretend that there is some huge number of liberals that won’t vote for her in December if he does not get a pony.
People like you are adding to those numbers every day.
I lived through eight years of “sit down and shut up, you lost” from the Republicans. I’m supposed to just accept it from the Democrats?
I forgot to address your point about “in the works for some time”. Sure, I read that. They’ve been talking. Like, “what do you guys want.” But still, this is just an opening offer.
Real quickly: They wouldn’t be naming people if it were just an offer. It’s a deal.
Nope.
Sorry, that was TOO quick. Sanders named his people and she named her people. That’s not much of an agreement. I mean she can’t say, no you can’t have him, or you must have her; and he can’t say. no you can’t have her and you must have him. That’s for each to decide.
But there’s a lot of other stuff.
The DNC didn’t have to offer him anything. This is a generous and respectful “offer”, and it should be greeted with respect in return.
I’m sure it is greeted with respect, but it’s still an opening offer.
They bloody well did have to offer him something, and you really need to to understand why. See my comments on this thread.
By the way, the AP report (updated 2 hrs ago) uses the language “expected to name.” So no, not even the names re set in stone.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-democratic-party-platform_us_57439500e4b00e09e89f
dd8f
Bernie’s aggressiveness is losing him votes quickly in California. And he isn’t going to become more powerful by continuing to irritate the party leaders. The best thing he can do, for his own reputation and the power of his movement, is prove that he sees the situation rationally and is devoted to the party and the nation. Talk isn’t going to do it. We need to see his behavior change from “still fighting for the nomination” to “knowing he’s lost the nomination, and continuing to work to get his ideas heard, but in a way which strengthen the party in the general.”
Keep your hair on.
yes, in fact he should drop out before CA. He’s rude and mean and so are his supporters and she’s already won. plus Trump is scary and if he wins it’ll be Sanders and his supporters fault. so there.
A debate in California might not be a bad idea if Bernie is, as I think he is, sincere in his supposed wish to not harm her as the nominee and ultimately unite the party. It could allow them to discuss issues substantively — and, to the credit of both Bernie and Hillary, I think the Dem debates have been quite good this year, unlike the lunatics on the other side — while also offering both a chance to be decent to each other, do the buddy-up dance a bit (crack a few jokes, etc) and assist the process of bringing the party together.
…adding:
I don’t really know why anybody cares about the platform beyond a token concession enshrining Our Party’s ValuesTM. No one reads party platforms. No one cares. The nominee is not bound by the platform. The actual platform is whatever the nominee is running on.
This isn’t the UK, where it’s a grand statement of What We’ll Do. It’s just a bunch of bullshit that allows people on a committee and their supporters to feel important.
Reforming the primary process is another matter. Bernie should aim for that.
“It’s just a bunch of bullshit that allows people on a committee and their supporters to feel important.”
Yeah, kind of. But it’s also a kind of template for seeking further commitments. Like “this is in the platform, we want some guarantees it’s really gonna happen.”
The primary process is important, but it’s far from the only thing that’s important. Also, other than the commitment, I’m not so sure it can be worked out at the convention, it will take a lot of work and time. I think it’s probably very complicated, because every state party sets its own rules. So they have to coordinate, big time.
The party platform has been in the past a common template for all of the party’s candidates. Most times with only minor omissions from district to district. Whether that cookie cutter approach to issues and policy advocacy can work in the current political geography is an issue this century.
Everyone should get a chance to vote. Basically I think Bernie should campaign hard for votes until DC goes. That might or might not be what you consider divisiveness.
Agree with this, depending on what we mean by “campaign hard”.
I think it’s kind of awesome that people haven’t coalesced around the nominee and thrown in the towel yet. Let folks be excited and have their say. Have a good battle.
But make it a battle of ideas. And, for the candidates, see the end game for what it is.
I wonder if anything short of winning is enough for his supporters. I’ve never really believed that the fire of his campaign was about policy, but about personality. The platform will set some priorities, which is fine, even excellent, and he’s had a tremendous influence on that (not that the differences with Clinton were ever that substantial). But I just don’t think the ardent followers are into priorities. And what is the risk, if Bernie says “OK, I’ve gotten what I want; it’s good for us; and you people have all made this happen…” that his followers see him as a sell-out to “the (dreaded) establishment”?
I understand that this has been about power and influence. I just doubt that voters new to politics will see it that way and follow his lead. I guess we will see if he’s really a leader.
“I’ve never really believed that the fire of his campaign was about policy, but about personality.”
Personality is leadership, but there are few more policy-oriented candidates than Sanders, and that IS the reason for the huge support. It’s very sad that you don’t understand that, and also I think very dismissive to im and his eupporters. Not that they are intellectuals, but because they are hurting and angry about very definite, serious issues that require new approaches and solutions. Nearly all the politicians are on automatic pilot, ignoring them, bullshitting them, and then along comes Bernie, and he’s giving them that.
“the fire of his campaign” but, much as I enjoy Bernie’s personality, for me it’s very much about the policy.
To you and priscuanius (I’m sure I got that wrong, my apologies). My view is that Bernie does not have policies. He has highlighted grievances without specific solutions. Nothing wrong with that. Just don’t pretend that “breaking up the big banks” is a policy, unless you believe that “building a wall” is a policy too.
But it’s a YUUUGE wall. Built by a winner, so much wall building winning you will be sick of it.
.
I don’t know where you get that. Policies exist in all degrees of completeness, from visions to white papers to bills, and everything in between.
No, those aren’t policies Bernie’s touting.
They’re slogans. Big difference. But then, that’s about all he’s offered his entire career of accomplishing fuck all.
Thanks for sharing.
they manage to get their policy proposals enacted.
That distinction made, I disagree with your overall point. Bernie has “policies” (i.e., policy proposals) in the same sense Clinton (or Trump) does, in varying degrees of completeness and detail. Some are obviously detailed enough that 3rd parties have felt enabled to analyze their economic impact, and have indeed done so (not vouching for the accuracy/validity of those analyses).
Break up the big banks is in fact a “policy” (i.e., policy proposal) even if you don’t agree it’s a good or desirable policy, and even if you don’t believe he could ever pull it off (i.e., it’s an aspirational policy proposal, as all such proposals from candidates are: they don’t possess magic wands to enact their proposals, not even Trump, as much as he pretends to believe otherwise).
I’m glad Clinton turned down the debate, because she has absolutely nothing to gain. All Sanders would is attack her, and being so close to the nomination, she doesn’t need it.
As for Sanders wanting concessions, believe me, he’s going to want Hillary to do things his way, and Hillary should have none of it. You don’t give away the store to someone who lost. You might throw Bernie a bone or two, but Hillary is the nominee, and she gets to decide what’s in the platform, just like other Democrats who have won the nomination have. Republicans are starting to rally behind Trump, I expect Sanders and his supporters to do the same.
It’s pretty obvious why Clinton doesn’t want to debate; if she tacks to the center, it’ll hurt her campaign in California. But if she makes substantive leftist policies, it’ll injure her plan to pick off GOP voters disenchanted with Trump.
Of course, this pretty much puts to bed the sad liberal pacifier of ‘Sanders moved her left, durr’. But you guys will figure it out, sooner or later. eastcoastmoderate at least understands what they’re getting; why are you trying to delude yourselves?
I mean, shit, she’s blatantly breaking an agreement made a few months ago and you guys still think that Hillary Clinton got moved left and going to stick out her necks for any leftist goals if it becomes the slightest bit inconvenient.
Forget about Clinton moving left. She’s going to move to the center for the general. It’s almost mandatory. Look instead at senators and congresspersons running to see where they move. That’s where the power of Bernie’s campaign should show up. And if you’re a Bernie supporter, then that’s where you should put your energies. They are the ones (with you) that will “make her do it” (to borrow a phrase from Barack Obama).
Don’t make me laugh.
Why would you say that?
1.) Because the kind of Democrats actual leftist want to install are opposed by the Democratic establishment (see: DWS)
2.) Because this iteration of the Democratic Party is massively incompetent. See: Hillary Clinton money laundering via state campaign funds (and after all that talk of her raising so much money for downticket Dems), letting the GOP run unopposed in several races (see: Pennsylvania), and of course putting toxic Dems like McAuliffe and Menendez and good ol’ Rahm near the vanguard of the party. Even if they were infected by a phantom leftist impulse they couldn’t take advantage of it.
3.) Most importantly, while Hillary Clinton is emblematic of the centrist rot that has infected the Democratic Party, she’s a symptom, not a cause or even symptom. As long as the Democratic Party elites continue to gain incentives
I know how you feel, but we do have some real leverage, if they’re not stupid. Bernie will go for some substantial gains, he may not get them, but he will not get steam rolled. Don’t listen to these jerks who say why should they compromise they “won.” With that attitude, you’ll soon discover you didn’t win shit.
I don’t want to do too much back and forth, but I suggest you go find those leftists and support them. Become the Democratic establishment, why don’t you. I’m part of that system and I’d be thrilled to have someone take away my position for more left-leaning positions. But I like winning too. And the far left doesn’t win very much. Think George McGovern. In some small pockets there is progress to be made. I live in an 80% Democratic county. Bernie has big support. And even here, those folks who support Bernie aren’t YET involved in the day-to-day politics of campaigning, winning, decision-making. How come, do you imagine? Because of DWS. Doubt that. I think it’s because they get juiced up every so often for the big prize, but aren’t really so clear about how to make the steps necessary to make the change they want.
Bernie supporters have only been in existence about a year, at most.
No — most Sanders supporters have been around for a very long time. Only the youngest of his supporters have come into existence as their political consciousness has developed. (Sort of like the young in the 1960s that had to throw off their lifelong inculcation of the honor and goodness of the US MIC and WWII to see that Vietnam was might with less than zero right.) But leadership is required for any peoples to become organized and a force. That’s where Bernie stepped up or in, and while he’s good to go for a few more years, I suspect that most of his supporters recognize the need to build a bench of leaders that can also step up as needed.
Well yes, in the poetic sense, or even in the philosophical sense. For example, I would have supported Sanders or anybody like him any time over the last forty years.
But we didn’t have the opportunity, and I never even dreamed he would run for president until he actually did. So as a HISTORICAL fact, I have only been supporting him for one year. And that goes for all of his supporters, you included.
he borrowed it (“now make me do it”) from FDR.
Brilliant. FDR is not Obama’s cup of tea. He’d wouldn’t go farther than pretending he cribbed it from Reagan. Or did Reagan channel FDR too?
Even the attributions to FDR are frequently caveated with “perhaps apocryphal” or some such (i.e., documentation that it actually happened that way apparently lacking).
Umm DWS has to go.
well that would be nice, but I don’t think that’s negotiable right now. Let Tim beat her, that’s the best way.
Had dinner with a long time activist, and like me a native Burlingtonian.
He said: “Bernie Sanders is right, but has no idea how to run anything”.
Ladies and gentleman, I give you exhibit A: the appointment of fucking Cornell West to the Democratic Platform committee.
Jesus.
He is staying because he will likely net another 200 plus delegates. Which means Clinton needs the applause of those delegates when she gives her speech at the convention. Which means she will have to do something to placate him.
Which gives him leverage.
But note no one on the platform committee ready to talk about wall street and populist economics from the Sanders campaign.
“Bernie Sanders is right, but has no idea how to run anything”.
I suppose that explains this:
http://theweek.com/speedreads/590697/bernie-sanders-highest-approval-rating-senator
Must be them Green Mountain Boys don’t want no senator runnin’ nothin’.
Yeah. Where the hell is Galbraith?
Cornel West is a democratic socialist from way back
That means Clinton will name ten. DWS is her poodle. The same thumb on the scale throughout this campaign.
this is about the platform, there are many very progressive delegates on the committee and a bunch of them are the ones Clinton picked
there isn’t really anything to put their thumb on a scale for here
I agree, Clinton made some good choices, I am optimistic.
The DNC made decent choices, too. Overall, it’s an excellent committee.
Platforms are meaningless lies.
then why even complain about who is on the committee if that’s what you believe?
Its Wasserman-Schultz’s four that could be the ringers because Clinton’s bring strong resumes to the job. And Sanders’s bring strong activist and legislative experience.
Worst case, they are ringers for Israel, private health care industry, national security contractors, and payday lending.
The four horsemen of the American apocalypse;
Isreal/War,
Private Health Industry/Death,
Security Contractors/Pestilence,
Payday Lending/Famine.
.
This is the committee plus Cummings as chair:
Hon. Howard Berman, Paul Booth, Hon. Carol Browner, Rep. Keith Ellison, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Rep. Barbara Lee, Bill McKibben, Deborah Parker, State Rep. Alicia Reece, Bonnie Schaefer, Ambassador Wendy Sherman, Neera Tanden, Dr. Cornel West, and James Zogby.
Christ, he’s not even a Democrat. I wouldn’t give him one.
I am getting a little tired of hearing this meme. If he’s not a Democrat, how is it that he’s a candidate in the Democratic presidential primaries? Some kind of silly mix-up?
If what you really mean is, he’s not a “real” democrat, then you’re on even shakier ground. He’s a lot realer Democrat than most.
thanks for your comments; if the dem party misses your point about independents on the scale the commenters here miss it (unless maybe someone is a troll and willfully misunderstanding), them dem party is in bad shape. they will go down in Nov whining about how Sanders supporters aren’t real dems and are mean ppl.
along with “eastcoastmoderate”.
They’ll say she lost because Bernie wouldn’t quit. Just like they blamed Nader for daring to run in 2000.
Until all nine hundred something pledged delegates are allocated, it is premature to try to dictate what Sanders does.
The platform is a PR brief. Having specific folks on the platform committee does get them input into the final document and puts it within their power to get the agendas of the Sanders voters into it so long as (1) there is not severe contradictions with the directions that the Clinton campaign is in fact going to go and (2) the Sanders representatives on the Platform (same for rules) committee are not in fact stonewalled.
The names publicized (interestingly leaving out Wasserman-Schultz’s appointees) are experienced enough to work together and produce some sort of a consensus IMHO. Sanders names broadens and deepens several areas of the platform that might have gone overlooked. His appointees thus complement Clinton’s if there is to be a genuine unity campaign.
What exactly is it in the convention that constitutes the “levers” of power. The credentials committee has been important in past conventions. It was the credentials committee that was the focus of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in 1964, and they were not seated at LBJ’s decision.
In 1968, it was the host city’s mayor and the operation of the police that was the center of power. Were there internal convention committees that were also in wrangles in 1968? The action outside the hall overtook coverage of them.
In many old style (not scripted for TV) conventions it was the actions of the chair or even the person of the chair itself that became contentious. The Democratic Convention in Nevada was a tempest in a teapot compared to some of the old conventions.
Surely Sanders will want his delegates and supporters to be able to engage in free debate in those bodies. And that requires input and participation in the rules committee and many of the administrative functions of the convention to which candidate campaign staff are usually committed.
What Sanders has to prove to bring what are a lot of independents at the moment into engagement with the Democratic Party is that they have an accepted place and role within the party. That is more than just a negotiated position for the convention, it is the potential beginning of a different relationship between the Democratic Party and the American left not unlike the marriage of convenience at one point between the Republican Party and the libertarians (broader than the Libertarian Party). It has to do with what areas of common principles they can pursue and what areas they leave to different approaches by different states or groups. The platform should be a statement of the the big top over the big tent of all the ideas and approaches. And should be without contradictions of purpose. Yes, that is very hard; that’s why one has platform committees and actual working conventions — or used to.
Another point of power is the shape (or existence of) a unity campaign. With a 55%-45% split between the top two candidates (a margin that by itself plays some part in the acrimony), a unity campaign is a strategic necessity this year. I hope that both campaigns are aware of that reality. That means that the delivery of downticket offices must be an absolute objective of the campaign that comes out of the convention and that unification geographically and within the party must happen even within the time of the convention itself. That is an extremely difficult task in which every issue is a potential splintering donnybrook. But it must be done, the arrogance of winning and the frustration of losing notwithstanding.
Given the ragged results of caucuses, primaries, and conventions, there will be credentials fights; most of the time there are as well. That is why a regular credentials committee exists. It is not an unusual happening. Sanders needs power on the credential committee to prevent its decisions from being one-sided. That prolongs its decisions of nature until there is compromise.
The last point of power in the convention is Sanders participation and Clinton’s openness to framing a narrative that will move the campaign. At this point the themes and folderol of “A future you can believe in” and “I’m with her” are now kinda of deadening. The first seems like Obama warmed over and the second tells nothing about the content of the campaign except that apparently a woman is the campaigner. It is not the person or necessarily the moment that needs a narrative as the Democratic Party itself and especially what the unity campaign is about.
If you got all 3080 counties and all 192,480 precincts to vote straight-line party tickets, what exactly would be the point of the Democratic Party? What value does it add to the United States of American through 192,480 locations?
The other area of power in which Sanders needs to contribute is thinking through a coherent system of finance to see the campaign through to victory, without entangling the Democratic Party in quid pro quos from corporate lobbyists and the 1%. Because the Republicans can get that nailed down an moreover it works against the interests of the people you are trying to turn out in GOTV activities. This is a major point of Sanders.
Of course putting the convention itself in hock to these interests is part of the establishment gambit to keep the ordinary voters from making the decisions that benefit their own interests.
Might it be possible that the campaign can break free of those chains after primaries and the convention being in hock? Well, the Sanders camp certainly could make a proposal and a demand and see where negotiations lead.
Being in a position of forcing Trump and the Republicans to be spending faster than the Democratic opposition is certainly one way to undermine Citizens United. Make money more and more ineffective just because so much of it is going into the campaign for the opposition that they waste large gobs of it.
What are the ways that Sanders can negotiate to make Clinton a far stronger front for the campaign and the campaign itself to be far stronger in widening the map and down-ticket races than the establish Democrats are willing to work to get this year. And if Clinton has all of the demographics with regard to people of color in fact mobilized for this year, that they put in place out of the convention the beginnings of the mobilization of these groups and the youth to increase turnout in the 2018 midterms to expand the map and downticket races once again.
Are Democrats in convention capable of such focus and unity and a big tent?
In the spectrum from the social democrats through the recently abandoned “moderate” Republicans (not wanting fascism), there is not likely a large disagreement about what the critical issues are, once assembled into a single big picture. Most differences are disagreements about particular means and current ways of trying to deal with these issues. Or superficial principles or totalizing models of what is acceptable or not. It is this practical American unity on issues that contrasts with the “Make America Great Again” nonsense from the Republican side. And “We are already great.” is a lousy rejoinder.
Finally, the person to watch of Clinton’s on the platform committee is Wendy Sherman. She has a stunning resume that ranges from dealing with domestic violence to negotiating about nuclear weapons with Iran and North Korea. There are some platform items on the Clinton side that could be very good if they break new ground instead of running in neoconservative, reponsibilty-to-protect, or liberal imperialist ruts.
This is one case in which I would love to be a fly on the wall as the platform committee meets and see how the actual negotiations are handled. By resume there is so much talent around that table. To have it come out something less than a means of breaking US politics free of some stale memes and habits would be a shame given the way the opposition is shaping up.
Excellent. Thanks again Tarheel for you smart writing.
Thank you for your compliment. I try my best to dig up some light in the midst of all of the heat.
Then I trust you will be as disappointed as I at the news that Sanders apparently wants a voice in Hillary’s cabinet picks. If true, then he truly has gone bugshit with ego and needs to be shut down. Now.
And Cornel West? Hell, I don’t know a single black voter of any stripe who can stand him, or takes him seriously. His day was done a long time ago, and he will wreak nothing but mischief.
As I write this, I understand Clinton has declined Fox News’ invitation to have one more debate with Bernie.
Gee, Bernie, what did you want? More Benghazi with your sour grapes?
Maybe the voice for cabinet picks is Cornel West for Treasury Secretary?
.
I actually thought he was slotted for FBI Director. Couldn’t be worse than the last 100 years.
west
.
…Sanders apparently wants a voice in Hillary’s cabinet picks. Probably not true at this time.
However, that’s what HRC got in ’08; so, why should Bernie settle for less than that?
Yep, it’s perfectly reasonable to me that Sanders wouldn’t want Clinton to appoint any Rubin/Summers types. If Elizabeth Warren can derail Obama picking Larry Summers to head the Federal Reserve then I think Sanders is well within his rights to try to set some boundaries for Clinton.
Yep, her economic team will be prequel to the next four yrs.
do you know any black voters?
No matter what Sanders and/or his supporters do or don’t do Hillary Clinton remains who and what she is. This summary of her income from speeches, talks, conversations, whatever you want to call them is presumably factual even though it appears in the NY Post.
http://nypost.com/2016/05/22/how-corporate-america-bought-hillary-clinton-for-21m/
You might argue that the information is not relevant because she did nothing wrong. Yet it might make a lot of people very envious and suspicious. It’s like Jon Stewart said about her wobbly convictions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp_gIWAaQVI
So the ethically challenged establishment candidate is ahead of the ethically (and otherwise) challenged anti-establishment candidate in setting up ways of extracting legal bribes from the moneyed class… Should we cheer this?
And after all this money gets spent on anti-Trump attack adds, what is her favorbility rating going to be then- higher or lower than it is now? Is her “I raised more money than Trump” campaign going to have any coattails? What is her mandate going to be once she gets elected- pass TPP for all the donors that sacrificed so much so she could get there?
And if the indictment comes through? what then- does she give the money back? Or will it be full steam ahead, they will never convict me in the Senate?
Look, I understand that it takes money to run for president. That’s fine. But Trump is going to attack her relentlessly for being corrupt. And he will be able do to that with free media every day of the week. Raising a ton of money from the vested interests and bragging about how well she’s doing it isn’t going to help that argument.