April 21, 2016

Quick Takes (v9): Independent No More

Quick Takes
Well, well, well.

After spending his entire political career, and more importantly his entire philosophical life, as an Independent, it seems that the Gentleman from Vermont has changed his stripes.
Bernie Sanders to Stay A Democrat For Life And Support Clinton If She Is The Nominee 
So proclaims the above headline from an article last night on Politics USA, the liberal political news website, which includes a link to the video from Bloomberg's With All Due Respect broadcast, where Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver broke this news.

I was just wondering along these lines last night, what would happen with the Berners were Sanders to come out in support of Clinton. My wondering was more in the context of him getting out of the race now, in the face of his campaign having to not only win all of the remaining contests, but having to win them by margins exceeding those of Trumpian proportions, something that seems almost impossible.

I hadn't considered that Sanders would be disavowing his Independent label and officially join the party against which he's trying to foment a revolution.

Does the revolution continue with the standard-bearer as an Insider, a very different capital I designation than the one he's leaving behind? Does Sanders now join forces with Elizabeth Warren and try to move the monolithic party to the left, knowing that they are, in many respects, pretty much alone out there in deep left field?

And the Berners, will they be as committed today as they were yesterday before this news broke?

The most committed of the revolutionaries, those who say they would never vote for Clinton in the general election, no matter what, may have some soul-searching to do today.  And it might be interesting to see if the money continues to pour in at the same frenetic pace after the NY primary results and last night's news.

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