What infuriates me is the disrespect for Democratic voters on the part of the
corporate leadership of the Democratic Party. Clearly, they believe that
because the Republican Party is so far to the right and Trump is so terrible,
they can impose a candidate on us who has a political history filled with
negatives and who is clearly inept. Their leaders of Democratic lawmakers in
the Senate and the House of Representatives have made terrible choices. The
party is not properly representing the interests of a majority of Americans and
yet, in comparison to the Republicans, they are whom we must choose. I think
that it's fine for young, energetic people to also organize for new choices in
the future. It will be their world. But right now, this is the world we have,
and we need to somehow, survive.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Wednesday, May 6, 2020 10:02 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The Democratic Party's Cynical, Anti-Democratic
Maneuvers Against Bernie Sanders
Hear that sucking sound? It's Wall Street licking up the last dribbles of the
Democratic Party.
Times call out for strong Leadership. The Republicans step forward with a Con
Artist and a crook, while the Democrats answer with...uh...Moe...Bo...what the
heck, at least we think he's a good guy...
Carl Jarvis
On 5/6/20, miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The Democratic Party's Cynical, Anti-Democratic Maneuvers Against
Bernie Sanders By Branko Marcetic, Jacobin
05 May 20
New York Democrats have struck Bernie Sanders from the ballot,
canceling the state's June primary. It's left a bitter taste in the
mouths of his supporters, whose disillusionment with the Democratic
Party will only deepen.
Almost as soon as former vice president Joe Biden was left as the only
candidate still running in the Democratic primary, the celebration
that typically follows a nomination victory was replaced by panic
among Democrats and the liberal press: Would the party unify? Would
Bernie Sanders supporters get behind Biden? Three weeks later, New
York Democrats have effectively canceled the state's Democratic
primary, angering Sanders supporters and deepening the party rift
Biden backers fear may hurt his chances in November.
When Sanders officially suspended his campaign on April 8, he made
clear he would stay on the ballot in upcoming primary contests to
accrue delegates and wield some influence over the party platform and
rules come convention time. But before the month was even over, New
York lawmakers slipped a provision into the state's budget bill paving
the way for the New York State Board of Elections' unanimous vote last
Monday to remove Sanders from the ballot. Co-chair Douglas Kellner
called the primary "a beauty contest" that is "unnecessary and
frivolous," and cited health concerns around voting during a pandemic.
The decision elicited outrage from top Sanders advisers like Nina
Turner, who charged it had a "chilling effect on democracy," and Jeff
Weaver, who called it a "blow to American democracy." But it's also
infuriated rank-and-file Sanders backers, who told Jacobin they feel
disrespected, silenced, and believe the decision will make the mission
of defeating Trump in November more difficult.
Joseph Henderson was a Sanders delegate for New York's 21st district,
a rural area in the northern part of the state bordering Vermont. He
estimates he spent hundreds of hours over the holidays driving around,
organizing events, and gathering signatures in the dead of winter to
be on the ballot, all of which has now been for naught.
"For a party that calls themselves the Democratic Party, they really
don't care for actual democracy," he says.
Diana Klementowski first got involved in politics in 2000 because she
"despised George W. Bush so much." She supported Sanders in 2016
before campaigning for Hillary Clinton in Ohio for the general
election, and decided to become a delegate this year.
"I did a lot," she says. "As soon as you could start collecting
petition signatures, I literally ran out the door, went to my car,
drove down the road and started petitioning. I was darn determined."
Klementowski says she spent three to four hours a day nearly every day
for weeks collecting signatures, gathering more than 150 of the 500
her group of five needed. Apologizing at one point for using the word
"damn" in describing her reaction to the latest news, Klementowski
clearly found it difficult to hold back a sense of betrayal.
"They're the only stupid state to do this," she says. "I'm very, very,
very angry."
It was much the same for Toni Kennedy, a registered nurse and
Democratic member of the Potsdam town council who was inspired to
enter politics by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Kennedy, too, went door-to-door in the bitter cold of January
gathering signatures to get on the ballot as a Sanders delegate.
"New York is one of the hardest states in the country to get on the
ballot for," she says. "So when you put a lot of work into getting on
the ballot and you do everything you're supposed to do, to just be
removed without any say or consideration, it's very undemocratic."
Confirming the Worst Suspicions
It isn't just potential delegates who feel let down. Zohar Gitlis,
thirty-two, Henderson's neighbor and a volunteer for the Sanders
campaign, comes from a Democratic voting family and says she's held a
"pretty go with the flow, loyal Democratic mindset" for her entire
voting life. After supporting Sanders in 2016, she door-knocked for
Clinton that October due to her concern over Trump being elected. This
year, she believes she spent somewhere close to ten hours a week on
the campaign for a month and a half, including gathering signatures
for ballot access phone-banking, and volunteering in New Hampshire.
"I did a door-to-door during a snowstorm one Saturday afternoon,
asking for signatures," she recalls. "I remember thinking, 'This is
great, 'cause so many people are at home.' But I definitely got a lot
of 'I can't believe you're out right now.'"
For Gitlis, the decision to cancel the primary has made it hard to
envision eventually having one-on-one conversations with voters for
the Biden campaign.
"I'm feeling more alienated than ever by the Democratic establishment,
more completely taken for granted and disrespected," she says. "This
news definitely ignited that feeling, more than any of the other
outrageous things that have happened in this election cycle, 'cause I
guess it was personal, 'cause I'd gathered signatures."
"It's a slap in the face," says Jay Bellanca, upstate co-chair of the
New York Progressive Action Network, an affiliate of the
Sanders-backed Our Revolution. Bellanca, who first got involved in
politics working for Kirsten Gillibrand's 2006 Congressional campaign,
says the cancellation is already undermining party unity going into
November.
"I've tried to bridge the gap between the Bernie people and the
establishment, and every time, it just makes it so difficult when they
do things like this," he says. "The 'DemExit' thing has picked up
steam again."
It was a sentiment repeated again and again by Sanders supporters,
who, while personally committed to defeating Trump in November, now
fear it will be much harder to get others on board. Several recounted
similar feelings among others in their social networks: that they were
angry, feel the decision confirms their worst suspicions about the
party, and that they can't bring themselves to go the extra mile to
elect Biden come November - some may even vote third party.
"I know a lot of people who have voted blue every election of their
lives and knocked on doors for plenty of candidates they don't like
who are feeling particularly uninspired to do that this cycle," says Gitlis.
"You've now caused the disunity that Trump would only dream of," says
Larry Cohen, Our Revolution board chair. "Those of us who are
committed to beating Trump and electing Joe Biden president, this
makes it harder."
Others see more far-reaching consequences in the cancellation, with
many Democratic voters fearing that Trump will use the pandemic as
justification to cancel the election in November.
"New York has provided a precedent for this," says Kennedy. "It only
makes it easier for Trump to do it, to say he's only doing what blue
states have done."
As it stands, the decision to cancel on the basis of health concerns
makes little sense. For one thing, Cuomo has already pledged to give
all registered voters the ability to vote absentee. And even with the
cancelation of the presidential primary, most of the state's residents
will still be voting in June in an array of down-ballot races anyway.
The decision is also difficult to square with the party's resistance
toward earlier calls to delay primaries over the risk of magnifying
the pandemic's spread add suppressing voting. Illinois governor and Biden
supporter J. B.
Pritzker ignored the Chicago Board of Elections request to delay the
state's primary despite having urged people to stay home just days
earlier, while Ohio's Democratic Party challenged its Republican
governor's decision to postpone his, and the Democratic National
Committee threatened states with losing delegates if they delayed
their primaries too far in the future.
Meanwhile, Biden campaign staff and Biden himself repeatedly
misinformed voters that it was safe to vote in person, arguing that
elections were held during the Civil War and 1918 influenza, and
reportedly insisting against delaying Wisconsin's primary. Coronavirus
cases and deaths have since been traced to all those elections.
It's all left a sour taste in the mouths of supporters of Sanders,
who, despite his loss, make up a significant chunk of the Democratic
base, particularly its younger cohort. Biden is currently struggling
with younger voters, a key part of Obama's winning coalition, and who
have been frustrated at Biden's refusal to embrace elements of
Sanders's agenda. For them, the cancellation of New York's primary
seems just further proof that the party, for all its demands for
unity, is bent on proving it can win without them.
"If they cut progressives out, I hope they don't blame us if Biden
loses the election," says Kennedy.