Bernie Sanders supporters were ready to turn the Minnesota State DFL Convention into a negative news story last Saturday. Early in the day Governor Dayton spoke to all of us delegates and alternate delegates. The main gist of his speech was party unity to make sure Donald Trump won’t win the White House. But when he mentioned he was a Hillary supporter, there were loud and prolonged boos filling Minnesota Orchestra Hall where the convention took place.
I’ve seen and heard my angry Bernie Facebook friends make the claim that they don’t just support Bernie, the man; they support his policies. But I saw no evidence that morning when our Governor – who turned a $6 billion GOP controlled deficit into a $2 billion surplus within a year of the legislature being controlled by the DFL…a governor who stands for basically the same policies that Bernie advocates for – got booed so passionately.
The Governor got on through his speech of unity and the first step in soothing the bern was complete. Then Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar spoke with the same message of unity. When she mentioned she supported Hillary, the boos were repeated. And again when DFL Party Chair, Ken Martin spoke. But slowly the Bernie supporters must have noticed that when all of these speakers mentioned how proud they were of Bernie, the Hillary supporters cheered along with them without a single boo to be heard. So their boos subsided, and the rest of the day went ok. The three speeches together acted as a huge Tucks Medicated Pad soothing the bern.
Don’t get me wrong. Many Bernie supporters did not take part in the booing. I myself have been a strong Bernie supporter for more than a decade. But the boo-ers were people who didn’t know who Bernie was a year ago. They seem to be the ones who think everything is “rigged”. I am very disappointed that Bernie has fueled that fire to some extent. I’m disappointed that Bernie has misled so many of his new supporters. I’m disappointed that Bernie thought he was winning just because he went the large rally route instead of the campaign route that worked for Hillary. It seems he may have had those huge crowds go to his head. And running for president ain’t like doing a rock tour.
Back to our story of last Saturday at the MN State Convention. The long day went fairly smoothly until the breakout sessions. The Hillary delegates left the main hall to elect their national delegates, and the Bernie delegates stayed to elect theirs.
One of the first things on the agenda in the Bernie hall was an announcement from the actual Bernie campaign MN spokesperson. She announced the eight delegates the Bernie campaign had hand-picked along with help from MN Congressman Keith Ellison’s office, an early Bernie supporter.
Immediately the microphones had long lines of delegates who wanted to say their piece. “The system is RIGGED!” “How dare anyone pre-pick delegates?” “I was never contacted to be a delegate!” were common mantras.
The Bernie revolution had folded in on itself. Perhaps because there were so many who didn’t understand how these things are done? It’s GREAT that there are so many more people getting involved. But getting involved doesn’t mean hijacking everything. There really does need to be a system for running a democracy. Otherwise there’s just chaos and nothing can get decided or done. The fact that Bernie’s own supporters were calling his own wishes for suggested delegates corrupt was a surprising, yet inevitable development.
The angry suggestions on how to move forward went on for about three hours. Many of the delegates making motions at the four microphones were clearly angry before they spoke. They’d suggest their naive/crazy idea on how to do it in their uncorrupt way and when it was voted down they’d turn their anger on those that had voted them down.
It seemed like, with these already angry folks, it really wasn’t about Bernie the man. But it certainly was not about Bernie’s policies. It seemed to be about them and only them. They’ve got the world figured out and everyone else is an idiot.
I have blocked some Facebook friends because they’ve revealed themselves to be in this category. They’d put up some fox news false dribble about Hillary corruption they’d fallen victim to and I’d chime in with facts to disprove it. They would then accuse me of being an elitist who’s just as corrupt as the worst of them. They would not have a reasonable discussion with anyone who didn’t support BERNIE! Even though they hadn’t heard of Bernie until a few weeks prior.
This is going on on both sides. On one side, these people are supporting Trump. On the other side, they’re supporting Bernie. In reality they’re all only supporting their angry egos.
AGAIN…the vast majority of Bernie supporters are very reasonable people who feel passionate about Bernie’s policies and principles. I feel passionate and agree with all of Bernie’s policies and principles except on guns. I’ve felt this way about Bernie for years and years. I toyed with going full in with Bernie last spring. But I quickly decided that he does not have the temperament needed to be president. I also feel strongly that we need him in the Senate for as long as possible. Another reason I decided to support Hillary over Bernie is because she’s the most qualified person to be president arguably since Thomas Jefferson.
It’s very sad for candidate and campaign supporters at the end of a losing campaign. I know this firsthand – I ran hard campaigns with great support and supporters in a very red district twice and lost. But many losing campaigns are still victories. Bernie’s campaign is a YUGE victory! And now he has an army and he is their General. He needs to keep leading his followers. I believe he will.
After I lost two elections, I decided to re-focus my efforts on making truly small business owners’ voices heard at the MN state capitol. I found others and we became resources for each other. We got over a dozen small business owners to testify in committee hearings on bills that would benefit small businesses. We were up against powerful deep-pocketed lobbyists who only fight for large corporations but claim they’re fighting for small businesses. We made a REAL difference within a few months in this last legislative session. We stood behind legislators who are truly trying to help us and we got actual bills passed into becoming actual law. I feel I accomplished more real good than I could have had I been elected into the state house.
Bernie’s army can do the same. Bernie talks about getting more robust progressive principles into the Democratic platform. I hope he leads his army into doing just that.
Bernie did not invent these policies and principles. Barak Obama in 2008 said he believes America needs single payer health care coverage. Hillary Clinton tried to implement that as first lady in 1993. President Obama has been pushing stronger progressive policy ever since the democrats abandoned him in the 2014 election. He decided he was going to go for it, and he has. Hillary was the most progressive pull on the Clinton white house in the 90s.
President Obama opened the door. Bernie has kicked it open wide enough to show other Democrats – including Hillary – that it’s now ok to walk through it. The other side has played their hand. And Trump is proof that the hand they’ve been playing for the last thirty to fifty years is a losing hand.
Bernie has an army now. He can do more by staying in the Senate and not going to the White House. He can lead those of his troops whose anger blurs their passion by encouraging them to work as a more effective fighting force alongside those they actually agree with.
I have faith that Bernie will do just that. And I thank Bernie for energizing progressives and liberals. He was not a Democrat until last spring. I’m glad he could see that the best and most expedient way to push our shared principles forward was to join forces with those who have been fighting in the trenches for years.
