Fight On, Bernie, Fight On! Run as an Independent

Senator Bernie Sanders lost by 13% to Secretary Clinton yesterday in California. 13% is a blowout in politics. The polls showed him closely rapidly on her in California, perhaps even pulling out an upset. Yet, once again the pollsters were wrong this election cycle. He would have had greater leverage at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia had he won. Some of the super delegates might even have changed their commitments. He had hope until yesterday. Senator Sanders never fully understood the Clintons. They have a simple rule, that of the late Al Davis: “Just win Baby!” Dirty tricks, illegal campaign contributions, lies, defamation, hypocrisy, obstruction of justice, it’s all part of the Clinton motif. They will say anything; they will do anything to win. Senator Sanders was right. This Democratic Party election was not fair, but politics is not fair. The fix was in this year. 2016 was to be a coronation of Hillary Clinton. The deck was cleared for her – no major opponents. Former Governor O’Malley of Maryland has been running for years and never got traction. Senator Sanders of Vermont isn’t even a registered Democrat. He’s an independent in the Senate. No one took serious the socialist who honeymooned in the Soviet Union. The Democratic National Committee and its Chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, were allied with Secretary Clinton. Of course, she was national co-chair of Hillary’s 2008 campaign. First, she limited the Democratic debates to six, often at low viewership times, such as during an NFL game. Second, she refused the Senator access to his own list he had provided the DNC. The primary system was rigged by the super delegates, almost all of whom were pledged to Clinton. They were also pledged to her 8 years ago, but then Senator Obama came on the scene. They switched. The ultimate outrage was AP calling the nomination locked for Clinton the day before the California. Many Sanders voters did not vote. Senator Sanders did not enter the race with the expectation of winning the nomination. He wanted to get his socialist message of inequality out, his message of the corruption of money in politics, his message about the evil banks, and his message of free college tuition. Thus in the first Democratic debate he went out of his way to toss Clinton’s email scandal off the table. He finally raised it last week, but it was too late. His campaign caught fire, just as Donald Trump’s on the Republican side. Both are outsiders attempting to shake up the system. The Senator had a great shot of winning the nomination, except for the super delegates. The process was rigged. He’s home in Vermont. He has a choice to make. Is it to support Secretary Clinton? Senator Sanders meets with President Obama tomorrow. The Senator will learn firsthand the meaning of Chicago Rules. They’re akin to Clinton Rules. Then he meets with Senate Majority Leader for a discussion of the facts of political life. The corrupt Reid will probably explain to him that he will no longer be welcome to caucus with the democrats and will see no legislation favoring Vermont. Rumors are that Senator Sanders will agree to endorse Secretary Clinton if Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz is terminated as Chair of the DNC. Don’t do it. Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz is political toast. Many Democrats want her out. She’s easy for the Obama and Clinton forces to throw overboard. That’s a no-brainer to them. It’s slightly possible she will lose reelection in the upcoming Florida non-Presidential primaries. Tim Canova, a Sanders acolyte, is running a strong primary campaign against her. He has the endorsement of several unions and raised substantial sums of money, including $250,000 in the hours after Senator Sanders endorsed him. The Senator knows, as we know, the public does not like either nominee. He knows people are looking for an independent. Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson is running for President on the Libertarian Party with former Massachusetts Governor William Weld as the VEEP. They’re polling about 10% right now – so strong is the yearning for an alternative. Several prominent Republicans want Trump out. The party leaders fear he will be another Sharron Angle, Christine O’Donnell, Ken Buck, Todd Akin, or Richard Murdock, costing them Senate seats. The primaries show the support for Secretary Clinton is a mile wide and an inch deep. Senator Sanders will draw a lot of disaffected voters to his side if he ran as an independent. He has a vast band of zealots attached to his Robin Hood campaign. It would be too late to run as an independent in Texas, but that solidly red state will probably give Donald Trump a majority of the vote in November. The Senator should run as a Last Hurrah. His political career is otherwise coming to an end. His whole campaign was a hoot, and he knew it. It will be even more of a hoot if he continued running. He would have a nationwide audience to espouse his views - that’s all he wanted in entering the race in the first place. It will be a supreme political irony if he ran as an independent. Governor Clinton won in 1992 because H. Ross Perot running as an independent won 18.9% of the vote. While surveys sowed the raw was evenly between erstwhile Bush and Clinton voters, the reality is his candidacy doomed President Bush’s reelection. President Clinton won both of his elections by a plurality – not a majority. Go for it Bernie. Let America feel the Berm. Fight on.