Mr. Bernie Sanders, whose campaign was built on the quest for a political revolution, talked tons of sh*it for weeks about fighting for the Democratic presidential nomination all the way to the convention floor in Philadelphia, but it turned out the Vermont Senator, like most politicians, was mostly hype and hyperbole. Unfortunately, Mr. Sanders ignored the unpredictable nature of American politics and instead listened to pundits and election mathematicians who told him his effort to push for a contested convention in Philadelphia would yield no results.
Just like no one saw coming the rise of Mr. Donald Trump, who’s leading Mrs. Clinton in a national CNN/ORC poll, it would’ve been impossible to predict the #DNCLeak, a breach of cyber security that made public nearly 20,000 emails that show obscene unethical behavior on behalf of the Democratic National Committee, behavior so against the values and Charter of the organization that its Chairwoman, Florida Congresswoman Ms. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, gave into peer pressure and resigned, and the organization on Monday issued an apology to Mr. Sanders.
Had Mr. Sanders kept his vow, instead of, like he did Monday, urging his energized supporters to unite behind Mrs. Clinton, he may have had the unique leverage needed to flip superdelegates into his column, convincing them that he, not the former Secretary of State who was found to have shared top secret emails with her aides, should be the party’s nominee.
But as is the case with the #DNCLeak, Mr. Sanders’ broken vow did not receive sizable media analysis, nor was he often confronted to rationalize his decision to the many supporters, most of them millennials, he amassed across the country. Equally absent of media scrutiny was Mr. Sanders’ promise to release his tax returns. On Monday night, Mr. Sanders delivered a fiery unification speech at the Democratic National Convention and, at that point, he hadn’t released said tax returns – not that it really matters anymore – and Mrs. Clinton, who this week will be officially crowned as the Democratic nominee for President, hasn’t released any transcripts of the speeches given to Wall Street executives, which apparently Mr. Sanders and the media has lost interest in viewing because the calls for them to materialize have stifled.
The theme emerging post-#DNCLeak, and maybe from the entire 2016 presidential campaign – and that includes the touring circus that is the Donald Trump campaign – is that accountability for words and actions is merely a suggestion, not a pillar of democracy, which after the #DNCLeak is an idea whose authenticity in America is being questioned. If there was ever a time when Mr. Sanders’ political revolution was needed, that time is July of 2016.
But the once lesser known presidential candidate who became a cult of personality appears no longer primed for a political revolution but rather political continuity: Mrs. Clinton, who now has Mr. Sanders’ unwavering support, is billed as a historic candidate who will extend the goodwill and policies of the Obama presidency.
If a politician had just kept a promise, which is so rare in America that when it happens its lauded ad naueseam by media and citizens, our present-day reality – having to stomach the tone deaf decision by Mrs. Clinton to recruit onto her campaign the disgraced Ms. Wasserman Schultz, for example – might be different. Instead of watching Mr. Sanders speak highly of Mrs. Clinton, who despite her awful judgment is more qualified to perform the job required of the President of the United States of America than Mr. Trump, we could be seeing Mr. Sanders outraged by the DNC’s attempts to sabotage his campaign, and him speaking unfavorably of Mrs. Clinton, challenging her to defend her record and the actions of her recent recruit, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, who was booed Monday morning when she attended and spoke at a breakfast for Florida delegates.
But such a confrontation will never occur, nor will Mr. Sanders’ political revolution, because he, as mentioned earlier, is mostly just hype and hyperbole, another politician whose promise was made to be broken.
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It was disappointing because Sanders was my candidate. Many people may wonder how did you go from Sanders to Trump. Well, it’s economics. Nether Trump or Clinton care about the middle class or the poor, however, Trunp’s policies particularly revisiting trade agreements like NAFTA will do more for the middle class than Clinton. Some want to make an issue of Trump not making any headway in Mexico. Why do you think that is? Why, because the status quo favors Mexico. Would uyou rather someone say that’s bad for America so I won’t do it or someone who’s going to just… Read more »