With the Democratic Primary winding down and Sanders in a strong position to exact concessions, there is the question of what is important for him to get. I think the head of Wasserman-Schultz almost worthless though it may help appease his supporters. Likewise, I don’t think the platform is that important because it won’t necessarily determine what Clinton does once elected, especially to the degree it is imposed against her preferences. What is important is that this movement progress beyond the Sanders candidacy that has triggered it. It would be tragic for all this mobilization to evaporate at the convention, but also tragic for it to continue in a purely oppositional stance that ultimately serves the interests of Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
Since Bernie’s agenda primarily concerns domestic policy anyway, the effort now should go to the place that policy is primarily determined: the US Congress. The GOP has had two spectacular successes in recent decades using fundamentally the same strategy, invented by Newt Gingrich: the Contract with America in the 90s, and the Tea Party in the 2010s. What both of these did was make Congressional campaigns national and ideologically intelligible While one can identify contradictions in the platforms of both those campaigns, they were intelligible in the sense that people at least thought they knew what they were voting for. Most people know nothing about their Congresspeople, especially in the House. They vote party, but without enthusiasm, and don’t vote or vote blindly in the primaries. When candidates endorse the Contract with America or join the Tea Party, it instantly tells their potential supporters what their platform is and who their allies are. This strategy gave the Republican Party the House and gave the Conservative Movement the Republican Party. The results have been disastrous, of course, but that shouldn’t blind us to the brilliance of the strategy. Alinsky said of his strategies that they were just strategies that could be used for good or ill; the same applies to the strategies of Gingrich. There is also something to be said for people voting on an ideological basis, rather than pure partisanship or name recognition.
Sanders now has a name and a platform pretty well known to the party and the public. It has considerable support. It may be impossible for Sanders to win the primary now, but if it were starting now, his chances would be much better, because he is better known than he was at the beginning, and the better he is known the more support he generates. “Sanders” now is both a brand and a political substance, and it is time to use it to win back the Congress for not just Democrats, but progressive Democrats.
So I suggest the Sanders campaign morph into the Sanders Slate, a well-defined platform, brand, and grassroots fundraising device that Democrats can join. Voters will instantly have some idea what Sanders Slate supporters stand for, just as they did for Tea Party candidates. To the extent possible at this late date, this should be put in place for this year’s election, but the groundwork should definitely be laid for 2018 and beyond.
What Sanders must get from Clinton in return for his support is a promise to stay out of it. Clinton herself, the DNC, and the other organs of the Democratic Party establishment must stay neutral in primary challenges. The ouster of DWS, if it happens, could be most useful for starting this discussion. If and only if the Democratic establishment does this, they can call on the Sanders Slate to support the nominee if they lose the primary, but that swings both ways. If the Sanders Slate candidate wins, the establishment cannot undercut them. All these promises must be made publicly because the only enforcement possible will be the public discredit from betraying them
Like the Tea Party, the Sanders Slate should also target state governments.
We don’t know yet how far the disintegration of the Republican Party could go. Many seats could become competitive that have not been. The fact that Sanders does better against Trump in head-to-head contests than Clinton does bodes well for the prospects of Sanders Slate candidates taking seats that centrist Democrats cannot take. If the Sanders campaign is a movement not just a candidacy, it is time to make that transition.
