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| Democratic Party opposition to Bernie Sanders is bizarre, and like Hillary Clinton is a disease from which there is no cure. |
This is not a winning strategy.
In Texas, national Democrats are backing an anti-worker Republican, Joseph Kopser, against a popular ex-math teacher and grassroots activist, Mary Wilson, in the May 22 primary election, (Jilani, The Intercept).
If it seems crazy for national Democrats to be backing Republicans in a Democratic primaries, we should consider it's not much crazier than rigging the 2016 Democratic Primary for Hillary Clinton who promptly lost to the lunatic now in the White House.
Hillary Clinton trumpeted her amassed superdelegates in August 2015, telling Democratic Primary voters the race is over, (Halperin, Epstein, Aug. 28, 2015; (BloombergPolitics)), months before the Iowa Caucuses and 11 months before the July 2016 Democratic Party Presidential Convention.
In New York, Hillary Clinton this weekend has endorsed the odious Andrew Cuomo against Cynthia Nixon, endorsed by Our Revolution, in the Sept 13 primary election.
National Democrats are pushing a message progressives must be stopped at the party primary level.
Yesterday, NBC's Meet the Press featured a long interview with Bernie Sanders, reported on by Cameron Cawthorne in the Washington Free Beacon.
Sanders was interviewed by Chuck Dodd who ask about the progressive-Democratic Party divide:
'What do you say to national Democrats who say be careful of this nominating folks who are too progressive.'No messages from national Democrats saying, 'you know what? Bernie Sanders is right and we should listen.'
'I think that they are wrong, and I think they are misreading where the American people are at,' Sanders said. 'You know, Chuck, many of the issues that I campaigned on two years ago—issues like Medicare for All, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, taking on the pharmaceutical industry, making public colleges and universities tuition free, legalizing marijuana—a few years ago those were seen as radical, fringy ideas.'
Sanders, who caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate, claimed that a majority of the American people now support those ideas, including an 'overwhelming percentage of Democrats.'
'I think what candidates all over the country are now beginning to understand is that it is more important to reach out to the people in your community, working people, the middle class, lower-income people, rather than just worry about what wealthy campaign contributors want you to say,' Sanders said.
'I think that's not only good public policy; I think that's good politics, and I think many of those candidates will win, because you are going to see voter turnout go up and a level of excitement that conservative Democrats don't raise,' Sanders added.
The DCCC has come under scrutiny from progressives and even more centrist Democrats during the 2018 election cycle for meddling in Democratic primaries across the country and choosing establishment Democrats for their 'Red to Blue' program. The organization has also come under fire for pressuring progressive candidates to drop out of highly contested races.
In particular, the DCCC targeted Texas Democratic congressional candidate Laura Moser by publishing opposition research against her on its website. While the DCCC received backlash from members of the media and Democratic activists, including former Obama administration staffers, the group stood by its strategy. That strategy backfired in March when Moser qualified for a May 22 primary runoff.
From Meet the Press:
See the video of Bernie Sanders at Meet the Press here.ICYMI: @SenSanders joins #MTP to discuss "electability" for progressive candidates in 2018 and why he thinks they encourage voter turnout. https://t.co/GNj8blk9Bg— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) May 21, 2018
Transcript of Bernie Sanders May 20, 208 appearance on Meet the Press here.
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