Focus: Bernie Sanders and the Democratic Nomination - May 4, 2016

If the Democratic Party nominates Hillary Clinton as presidential candidate at the July convention, Bernie Sanders should run as an independent or third party candidate in the November presidential elections. The Democratic Party has fundamental reasons to deny the nomination to Clinton: her foreign policy blunders, misguided domestic policies, campaign finance dependent on rich donors, paid speeches of which she would not release the transcripts, Clinton Foundation shady fundraising, private email server and more. If the Democratic Party nominate her it means it is unwilling to reform itself and represent the massive progressive movement sparked by the Sanders campaign.

Even if the Democratic Party at the July convention adopts a progressive political platform including Sanders proposals, it should not be acceptable without rejecting Clinton nomination. Given her dismal track record and her reliance on powerful special interest groups, a Clinton administration would lack the conviction on those reform issues, let alone the capacity to implement them: a $15 an hour minimum wage, an end to past trade policies, a Medicare-for-all health care system, breaking up Wall Street institutions and financial transaction tax, making public colleges and universities tuition free, passing a carbon tax to address climate change, ending fracking, promoting a foreign policy aimed at peace not regime change by military force, establishing an open primary system, etc. 

It must be stressed that the Democratic primary process of selecting a party candidate is flawed and rigged against Sanders because it denies full participation to the independents which overwhelmingly support him. If the independents were allowed to vote freely in all the primaries, with no restrictions, Sanders would be in a much better position to challenge Clinton. The latest example is today's Indiana primary which is open to the independents: Sanders beat Clinton 53% to 47%. According to NBC exit polls, in the Indiana primary Sanders won 72% of the independents while Clinton got 28%. Independents were the turning point considering that 53% of Democrats voted for Clinton and 47% for Sanders. An April Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that Clinton’s favorability rating among independents dropped 15% nationally in the last four months. That poll found that 20% of independents viewed Mrs. Clinton positively, compared with 62% who viewed her negatively. 

The Democratic primary process is furtherly rigged by the injustice of unelected superdelegates, which are prominent Democratic Party leaders, account for 15% of the overall convention votes and have mostly pledged to support Clinton nomination. While the Democratic Party establishment has endorsed by and large Clinton, Sanders fares much better than Clinton against Trump in all national polls. In the latest Rasmussen poll, Trump leads Clinton 41% to 39%.

Notwithstanding setbacks in New York and other Eastern closed primary states, Sanders looks more and more ‘presidential’, not just a ‘candidate' for Democratic nomination. There are still six months left to the presidential election. Time is on Sanders’ side. During this period he can win more popular support, grow the grassroots movement, build a group of experts in each field and refine his programs. it is necessary to know more about Sanders' top advisers who are in charge of shaping the policies and would be officials in his administration. 

To contact Bartolo email peaceloverblog[at]yahoo[dot]com (replacing [at] with @, [dot] with .)