In a new low for media collusion with voter suppression, the New York Times reports that the Associated Press has called the Democratic Party presidential nomination for Hillary Clinton-on the eve of six primaries including delegate rich California. The AP’s determination is based on a survey of so-called superdelegates. Based on these data, the AP has decided that Clinton has enough pledged and unpledged delegates to clinch the nomination.
What’s wrong with this picture? For one thing, millions of voters will go to the polls tomorrow for primaries in California, New Jersey, South Dakota, Montana, New Mexico and a Democratic Party caucus in North Dakota. What’s the point of them even bothering to vote if everything has already been decided?
Is this announcement an attempt to discourage Democratic primary voters from voting? In past elections, many liberals have complained bitterly about news agencies “calling the election” before the polls have closed, effectively discouraging late voters from coming out.
What’s at stake here?
This is not an ordinary election season. Hillary Clinton may very well end up being the first U.S. woman to be the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, but that is not what makes this primary season unique. Far from being a feminist icon, Clinton represents the stale, neoliberal politics of the “New Democrats” who are further to the right than many an old school Republican. She is a warmonger and war criminal of the first degree and millions of people in the U.S. are sick and tired of everything she stands for.
Meanwhile Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, has been drawing massive crowds in every city he campaigns in. In national poll after national poll, he is shown defeating Donald Trump, while Clinton’s lead over Trump in these polls continues to shrink.
The Sanders campaign message is fundamentally one of struggle and unity. When people stand up together and fight back, they win. He calls for a $15 minimum wage, free tuition at public colleges and universal single payer health care. This campaign has struck a nerve with poor and working people and especially among young people.
The Sanders campaign’s boldness and audacity has also captured people’s attention. Sanders has vowed to fight all the way through the convention. He has appointed a number of very progressive people to the Platform committee, including Cornel West and James Zogby, and appears to be preparing for a platform fight at the convention that may center on the issue of Palestine/Israel. This doesn’t mean that Sanders is a revolutionary who stands in defense of the Palestinian right of self-determination, but unlike the Democratic establishment, he has gone on record, in his videotaped speech to AIPAC, as defending the humanity of Palestinians and seeking a more “even-handed” foreign policy in the Middle East.
Who can defeat Trump?
Sanders recently made speeches about the importance of defeating Trump in November. When he first made these kinds of remarks, one might be forgiven for interpreting them as a re-assertion of his pledge not to run as an independent and support whoever is the Democratic nominee. However, it is becoming clear that Sanders was actually asserting that if the Democrats are serious about defeating Trump, they should make him the nominee, because he has a better chance of beating Trump.
Right now, the pressure is building on him to drop out of the race, recognize Clinton as the nominee and start “uniting the party” behind her.
The Sanders campaign is at a crossroads, as has been reported today in the Wall St. Journal. Many in the campaign want to continue the fight, continue to make the case to the superdelegates that they should switch their votes to Sanders, continue to fight until the convention is over. Others in the Sanders camp who might be fairly described as Democratic Party hacks, are urging Sanders to give it up after the June 7 primaries.
Bernie or Bust
The mainstream media like the AP and Wall St. Journal don’t want to acknowledge the vast numbers of those who are #BernieOrBust, who have vowed they will never cast their vote for Hillary Clinton. These voters are not operated by a switch that Sanders the candidate can turn on and off at will. They have come into the struggle by the path of least resistance, as supporters of a Democratic presidential candidate, and they are getting an education in how the system is rigged to prevent the will of the people from being achieved via elections.
Some Sanders supporters truly see Trump as the lesser of two evils in that his ascendancy to the White House will trigger mass struggle with the potential to lead to greater gains in the long run. Others are simply rejecting the “lesser evil” logic altogether, insisting they will only vote as their conscience dictates.
I hope no one stays home on June 7 in the primary states because the AP has already called it for Clinton. Just as many are learning about how the system is rigged, they are learning about the role of the media in lying and distorting the truth in order to control the people, as Noam Chomsky so eloquently called it, “manufacturing consent.”
I don’t have a crystal ball and have no idea how the convention will unfold. I do believe that it is important that the Sanders camp go into the convention still fighting. Not because I believe that Sanders is going to win the nomination (though I suppose almost anything is possible; look how far Sanders has come in just one year of campaigning), but because giving up before the battle is over is demoralizing, even within the limited framework that Sanders has established in which he has promised to support the nominee, whoever that may be.
I have spent hours and hours speaking to Sanders supporters, and many know that it is unlikely that Sanders will actually win the nomination. Regardless of what Sanders tells them to do, these young people will not vote for Clinton. Where will they turn?
I tell them I’m voting for Gloria La Riva, the candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a longtime fighter for people over profits, against racism, bigotry and war, for socialism. And if we have learned anything from Sanders’ campaign, it’s that just voting every four years for a president is not enough to make real change. We have to stand together and fight back regardless of who is sitting in the White House.
