Sanders supporters can shape evolution

The advancing Trump juggernaut surely must be making people across the world wonder whether the United States of America has lost its collective mind. And of course, we wonder that ourselves.

But we are comforted by the fact that he is so manifestly unelectable that his nomination is an almost automatic victory for his opponent, even if that were Elmer Fudd. But Elmer’s not in the race, and it seems Hillary Clinton is pretty close to having the Democratic nomination tied up with a bow, which means – barring unforeseen surprises – we can look forward to a Clinton v. Trump prizefight for the presidency.

The Sanders campaign is now talking about showing up at the Democratic convention with as many delegates as possible and using them to push the party platform to the left on the key issues of income inequality, climate change and campaign finance.

And while legions of Sanders supporters may think this means the wind has gone out of their sails, they should think again.

Clinton is definitely an establishment candidate, with a lot of establishment baggage, but she does have some progressive instincts, and she is the kind of politician who is malleable. If the election is a mandate to do something about income inequality, climate change, and campaign finance, she will. But that can only happen if the Sanders supporters stay in the game, ensure that she wins big, and that she is backed up by a Democratic majority in the Senate and a substantial reduction in the number and extremism of Republicans in the House of Representatives.

The last few years have been a pretty thorough demonstration of the dysfunction of divided government, compounded by the sub-divided Republicans who’ve tied themselves in a Tea Party-versus-mainstream knot that led to government shutdowns and political paralysis.

President Obama’s tenure would have had entirely different outcomes with Democratic majorities in Congress. “Yes we can” might have actually have become “yes we did.”

And we’d have a new Supreme Court justice by now.

What the Sanders supporters can still achieve – and this would be a monumental accomplishment – is to push the political center of American politics back from the slide to the right that’s been going on since Reagan defined government as the problem and deregulation and budget cuts as the solution. That slide to the right has accelerated over time, especially since the advent of the Tea Party and the conservatives’ descent into delusional nostalgia for the Father Knows Best 1950s.

To change the trajectory of American politics, Sanders supporters need to accept that while they may not succeed at making a political revolution, if they stay engaged and support candidates willing to advocate for their agenda – and if they show up and vote in very large numbers – they can cause political evolution.

As the Sanders campaign begins to shed staff and shifts to thinking about what comes next, the looming question is one of legacy. Was the Sanders campaign the birth of a movement, or a one-off political campaign? Can Sanders fans steeped in the riveting language of revolution settle for the relative tedium of a political life with less immediacy and longer term persistence?

We hope so.

This story was originally published April 30, 2016 at 6:53 PM with the headline "Sanders supporters can shape evolution."