JB: I'm glad you're excited; I'm terrifically disappointed by the exceedingly low standards of my mainstream journalist counterparts. The corporate media is not about to out itself on this story, since it confirms our suspicions that their behavior is so corrupt, unprofessional and hardly befitting the Fourth Estate, traditional watchdogs of democracy. You mentioned Clinton's chances against Trump in the general election. You pointed out that Sanders does much better in a number of key states.
If the press is not covering this and the DNC (not to mention the superdelegates) chose to ignore this, what can Berniacs do? What's to stop the corporate media from discontinuing issuing polls altogether if they continue to reflect Clinton's weakness? We certainly don't have much reason to trust what or even how they report. In these instances, social media is just not enough, is it?
TC: Nothing beats good old-fashioned organizing, which Sanders supporters have been doing quite successfully since the start of last year. Social media is just one tool, not the entire toolbox. If Clinton isn't indicted by the start of the conventions, I think the "Berniacs" as you call them should continue focusing their energy on congressional and statehouse elections to make sure there are candidates at all levels who embody Sanders' values. Even if Bernie isn't elected president in 2016, his supporters can still make a huge difference in local, statewide, and congressional elections. The Tea Party serves as a great example of that.
While Sanders' diehard supporters are often called the "left-wing Tea Party" by Hillary Clinton supporters, and while that's meant to be an insult, I see it as a call to action, as the Tea Party's grassroots organizing in 2009 and 2010 was tremendously successful, completely re-energizing the Republican Party and enabling it to take over both houses of Congress and the majority of state legislatures across the country.
One of USUncut.com's writers did a fantastic job making the case for Sanders' millions of "Bernie or Bust" supporters to force the Democratic Party to let the new, young, hard-left base take over the party, or continue its eight-year trend of crushing defeat.
In 2009, the Republicans were completely demoralized after losing the White House and both houses of Congress to Democrats by landslide margins. But the Republican base refused to quit, got mad, and started a populist, hard-right, grassroots movement that demanded their elected officials abide by a certain set of principles or face primary challenges. By 2010, the Tea Party had completely taken over the national discourse, framed it on their terms, and forced congressional candidates to adopt ultra-conservative platforms. After the 2010 midterm elections, they had not only taken over the U.S. House of Representatives, but enough state legislatures and governor's mansions that they got to influence the redrawing of districts after the census. This paved the way for years of Republican control, and they were able to build on their congressional and statewide victories in 2012 and 2014. Their 2010 redistricting efforts were so successful that even though Republicans lost the White House by a virtual landslide, they actually made gains the House due to the new district lines they drew at the state government level.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party today has the lowest state-level representation in a century, and Republicans control both houses of Congress for the first time in decades. That's what successful grassroots organizing looks like. There's no reason Sanders supporters can't do the same thing between 2016 and 2020. If the millions of people who galvanized for Bernie Sanders can get Sanders-style Democrats elected to enough state legislatures and congressional seats by 2020, they can take over the Democratic Party and play a major role in the 2020 redistricting battle.
Of course, this is chess, not checkers, so playing the long game will likely mean primarying longtime incumbents and potentially losing to Republicans as a result, like the Tea Party did with Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin in Indiana and Missouri, respectively. Even though their hard-right candidates lost their general election battles, it served a greater purpose of hardening the Republican Party and forcing party bosses to listen to the base or lose their jobs. And of course, some Tea Party primary challenges have been successful, like when Dave Brat beat Eric Cantor in 2014. Who expected that to happen?
Right now, the Democratic National Committee runs roughshod on its base and expects the base to fall in line out of fear of the other. What the base needs to do now is remind the DNC that the voters are in charge, not the party bosses, and if that requires them learning the hard way, then so be it.
DNC initially claimed that no financial information was leaked. The rest of this list (and lots more) can be found on Guccifer 2.0 website
JB: That's a well-thought out but very long-range plan. I'm interested in right now, today, and the coming weeks and months. What about the millions of voters who have a long laundry list of complaints including unfair press coverage, voter suppression, insufficient numbers of polling places, mass disenfranchisement of legally registered voters, vote flipping from their candidate to another candidate, double-dealing by the DNC and old pols of the Democratic Party, etc. etc. etc.? What recourse is there for their many, varied and justified grievances? And let's not forget Hillary's prematurely declaring victory and arrogantly taking their future support for granted. Are they just plain out of luck?
TC: The DNC is still a month away, so Sanders supporters who want to make their voices heard about the numerous irregularities in the primary and caucus process can start making plans to find a way to Philadelphia by July 25 for the mass protests outside the Wells Fargo Center. Organizers are expecting tens of thousands, but it could very well be as big as 100,000 or more. Over 1 million basketball fans took over the streets of Cleveland on Wednesday for the Cavaliers parade, so there's no reason to believe that Sanders' 12 million voters can't put up similar numbers next month.
Philadelphia, site of 2016 Democratic National Convention
(Image by (From Wikimedia) Bmoredlj at English Wikipedia, Author: Bmoredlj at English Wikipedia) Details Source DMCA
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