The biggest problem here, from the perspective of those who are working hard for the "political revolution" that Bernie has inspired is that Sanders has had four years to publicize, denounce, and insist on correcting all of these methods of cheating, and has said or done nothing substantive to that end.
So if/when he, and that movement, are cheated out of the majority or large plurality of delegates by these stratagems, there is no one more responsible for it than Bernie himself. Cheat me once". And if he refuses to identify this cheating and back up his own voters' and supporters' complaints about it as it is happening"well, that's an element of Bernie's troubling pattern: He doesn't back himself as much as his supporters do.
We also know that Democratic establishmentarians, their donor base and their allied media will be engaging in a ferocious and constant ideological and personal assault on Bernie and his campaign. The Dem-aligned media have already spent months ignoring and erasing Bernie in their coverage. We will now see a constant stream of attacks, that has begun with the "Bernie Bros," "women can't win the presidency," "doctored video," Joe Rogan, and, of course, " anti-Semitism" jabs. These were so transparently concocted that they ended up helping Bernie. It's also the case, as Krystal Ball says: "They don't have any really good ways to take him on." The trove of old Bernie videos shows him actually fighting for civil rights, chained to his black comrades. But the very powerful and wealthy powers-that-be are not going to stop. They are right now " scrambling" to find ways to take him down.
The key here is what Bernie does. Will he Corbyn-ize himself with death-by-a thousand apologies and backtracks, or will he take Kate Aronoff's advice and " nip th at sh*t in the bud"? Sanders's refusal to back down on Joe's Social Security/Medicare record, on the Warren accusation, and the Joe Rogan attacks augurs well in that respect. His apology for Zephyr Teachout's entirely reasonable op-ed on Biden's corruption problem, an apology even Bill Maher thought was unnecessary, not so much. Again, Bernie's biggest potential weakness is Bernie himself.
The tendency to watch out for-Bernie's possibly fatal flaw-is that, while he bites back hard on phony attacks from, and reactionary stances of, Republican opponents, he withholds or soft-pedals criticisms of the same things on the same issues from his Democratic "colleagues." Can't be too hard on Biden (as with Hillary), for example, lest you help Trump (or call Obama's presidency into question). This is why it will be harder for him to win the Democratic primary than the general election.
A telling moment in the " villainous and shameful" CNN/Des Moines Register debate was when Bernie-after being shivved by Warren and portrayed as a reckless fantasist by everyone else on the stage-felt the need to declare, for the umpteenth time, that he would "do everything in my power" to get her or any of them elected.
Why? Nobody asked him for that. Nothing in the context demanded it. He signed the pledge. Why, in the midst of a personal betrayal and deliberate nuclear attack on his political life, does he feel the need to renew his vows, and make sure the people who are trying to kill him politically know he supports them?
Bernie, the people on that stage are not your "friends"! They are your enemies, every one of them. (The only exception might be Steyer!) It doesn't make any difference how ferocious you are against Trump if you're pulling all your punches against your Democratic opponents. You've got to beat them to get the nomination.
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