The Equal And Opposite Reaction To Bernie: Call yourself a “democratic socialist” and everyone who feels threatened by democratic-socialism will mobilise against you. The anti-Sanders mobilisation has taken some time to resolve itself into a single challenger, but former Vice-President Joe Biden’s, runaway victory in South Carolina has finally cleared the centrists’ path to the nomination.
WATCHING THE SLOW descent of Bernie Sander’s campaign is a
depressing reminder of democratic (and Democratic) political realities. The
most brutal of these is that Newton’s Third Law of Motion applies with equal
force to politics as it does to physics. “For every action, there is an equal
and opposite reaction.”
Call yourself a “democratic socialist” and everyone who feels
threatened by democratic-socialism will mobilise against you. The anti-Sanders mobilisation
has taken some time to resolve itself into a single challenger, but former
Vice-President Joe Biden’s, runaway victory in South Carolina has finally cleared
the centrists’ path to the nomination.
No matter how thrilling Sanders’ wins in Iowa, New Hampshire
and Nevada may have been, the brute arithmetic of the primary process remained
constant: the combined strength of his opponents was always greater than his
own. As the captains and the kings of the Democratic Party centre depart, with
Pete Buttigieg leading the way this afternoon (2 March 2020) the inevitability
of a single opponent standing athwart Bernie’s path to the nomination is now clear.
“Super Tuesday” (Wednesday, 4 March NZT) will winnow the
field with even more force than South Carolina. The departure of Amy Klobuchar
and (probably) Mike Bloomberg, will leave the field clear for Biden’s folksy
homilies. Elizabeth Warren will likely remain in the race, drawing votes from
Sanders in expectation of being rewarded with the Vice-Presidential nomination.
At some point well short of the Democratic Party Convention in Milwaukee (July
13-16) Sanders’ campaign will falter and fade away. Many on the left of the
Democratic Party will settle for the half-loaf that is Biden-Warren –
especially if it means driving Donald Trump from the White House.
“No! No! No!”, the Sandernistas will cry. “That must not be
allowed to happen!” But the angry protests of these young, idealistic
progressives will not avail them. At some point in electoral politics, the
moment comes when you must remove your fingers from your ears, open your eyes,
and take in the terrifying spectacle of your enemies’ tanks rolling towards
you. Whether you believe in it or not, the Third Law of Political Motion is
very, very real.
Why is the Democratic Party leadership so terrified of
Sanders becoming the nominee? Because they know the size and ferocity of the
forces his nomination for the Presidency would unleash. Sanders supporters rail
against the Democratic establishment – accusing them of doing everything within
their power to undermine their candidate. And that’s true. They are. Not
because they’re against Medicare For All, or even the Green New Deal, but
because the billionaires Bernie denounces, whose enormous power and wealth are
directly threatened by his policies, will move heaven and earth to keep him,
and them, out of the White House.
Democratic Party stalwarts, the people who have spent years
navigating the treacherous waters of the United States’ political system, have
priorities very different from Sanders’ most vociferous supporters. They are
only too aware that even if, by some miracle, Bernie won the White House; the
Almighty is most unlikely to add a second miracle to the mix.
Yes, a President Bernie Sanders could achieve some important
gains by Executive Order, but he couldn’t deliver Medicare For All, or a Green
New Deal, or the writing-off of student debt, or any of the other radical
measures he is promising, without solid majorities in both the House of
Representative and the Senate. Truth to tell, securing the passage of such
radical legislation would be a long shot even with substantial majorities in
both houses of Congress. Without them, however, Bernie’s programme is a
pipe-dream. As unrealistic as expecting the God of History to deliver the Democratic
Party not one, but two, political miracles at the 2020 elections.
Stripping away all the ideological bunting, there is only
one unequivocally popular prospect the Democratic Party can hold out to the
American electorate: a White House cleansed of Donald Trump and all his evil
brood. But, bringing together an electoral coalition powerful enough to secure
Trump’s defeat in the Electoral College will not be easy. Far from offering
voters the bitter rhetoric of class war, the Democratic Party’s candidate will
need to speak the language of inclusion, reconciliation and national renewal.
The sentiments of America’s Founding Fathers should be
turned against the constitutionally illiterate Republican incumbent. Recalling
for voters all the great and redemptive moments of American history, the
Candidate should then invite them to contrast the moral strength of America’s
best leaders with the abject moral squalor of its worst.
Bernie Sanders and his followers have done the United States
the inestimable service of bringing together all the planks necessary to
construct the most progressive Democratic Party platform in a generation. To implement
the Sandernistas’ progressive dreams, however, the voters of United States must
first be persuaded to abandon the ruin of unreasoning and mutually destructive partisanship.
First and foremost, America needs a healer.
If History has taught us anything, it is that revolutions inevitably
open up new wounds – even in those rare instances when they succeed in closing
up old ones. Always, the true believers cry: “Let Justice be done – though the
heavens fall!” But what sort of justice has ever emerged from the ruins of
paradise?
Let the equal and opposite reaction to Donald Trump’s hate
be love. Allow him to initiate the action that will bring his administration down. The
Democratic Party can only win in November by being the response – not the call.
This essay was originally posted on The Daily Blog
of Tuesday, 3 March 2020.
