Tom Gallagher says “…We Need Him Now More Than Ever.”  Need him to do what?  That is the question.  I don’t think Tom’s answer is the best one.  

Responding to Tom

To begin with, conflating “mainstream” with “establishment” puts together in one category what are clearly two.  “The establishment” is the power structure and its allies in the Democratic Party.  “The mainstream” is those voters who stayed home when Bernie thought he could turn them out, and those voters who cast their ballot for Biden despite their support for most if not all of the Sanders’ program because they believe Biden is the better choice to beat Trump—which must remain our principal concern.  That way of understanding the problem is different from Tom’s “the party’s ‘mainstream’ or ‘establishment,’ depending on where you stand.  It doesn’t matter where you stand to see the facts of who turned out, who voted for whom, and who has how much money to continue campaigning.  Bloomberg’s limitless money didn’t help him much with voters.

Nor do the litany of ills facing the country, the nature of the current power structure, or the consequences of neo-liberal policies tell us what Bernie should do.  Gallagher provides us a recital of what readers of this forum already know and agree upon.

His analysis of why Bloomberg and other challengers dropped out of the race doesn’t mention that they didn’t do very well in places and with constituencies they needed for them to continue running.  Thus it was not only Establishment Democrats who dropped out, it was also Warren, Steyer, Yang, Gabbard, Castro, de Blasio and Williams.  Candidates drop out when a combination of money and votes necessary to gain a significant number of Convention delegates isn’t there.  He says, “a principal reason for…dropping out…has generally been the inability to continue to raise money,” omitting the fact that diminished funding is in large part a function of how many votes a candidate is getting.

“The rationale of the Sanders campaign,” Tom tells us, “has always been that Donald Trump should not be allowed [to] win…by painting the Democrats as the business-in-Washington-as-usual-party.”  Were the Democrats simply that, Sanders should have run as an independent—a third party candidate.  But things aren’t that simple.  Indeed, as Tom has persuasively written elsewhere, the nature of this system is that we are stuck with “lesser of two evils” politics.  That the Democrats are lesser is daily demonstrated by the fights between the Democrat-controlled House and the Republican-controlled Senate, and by the Democrats versus Trump over how to respond to the Corona virus-caused health care and economic crisis.  That’s what Black voters in South Carolina understood when they overwhelmingly voted for Biden despite their support for, to take just one example, universal health care.  

The Corona Moment

The health, employment, housing, income and other crises for hundreds of millions of Americans posed by the Corona pandemic is an opportunity for qualitative leaps forward in both program and organization.  Good strategists say, “never let a crisis go by without using it.” But note this:  crisis encompasses both danger and opportunity.  How are the causes of universal health care, living wage, workers’ right to organize, small business support, tenant and homeowner protection against eviction and foreclosure and others, and the organization that moves them forward, strengthened and expanded in this crisis moment?

The overarching strategy Sanders should pursue is uniting progressives, and joining with centrists to beat Trump.  In that framework, he could negotiate substantial victories that build upon the gains his campaign has already made:  the candidate for vice-president, party platform planks and their implementation, executive orders to be issued on Day One of a Democratic President’s term, appointments to Federal Courts, ambassadorships and the President’s Cabinet and sub-Cabinet positions, appropriations for massive infrastructure programs and transition to a climate-friendly economy, and others.  You can’t form a united front while you’re daily attacking your major partner in that front.  And that doesn’t mean you abandon your platform, principles or campaign; it simply means you are strategically and tactically wise.

The risks of a Sanders campaign based on continued attacks on Biden (which, for example, a face-to-face debate would require) and his neoliberalism are:

• decline in Sanders primary votes as more-and-more people conclude Biden is the one to beat Trump (or even someone else who might be drafted—who knows what the recent sexual abuse allegation will mean for Biden’s campaign);
• divisions (already appearing) in Sanders’ coalition;
• decisions of importance made in his absence (as Biden is now doing in his search for a VP), and;
• increased numbers of people who dismiss Sanders as a sour grapes candidate. 

Sanders can negotiate a powerful united front and nominally remain in the race, “nominally” being the key word.  Staying in or bowing out becomes a narrow technical/tactical question if a different strategy is adopted—one that focuses on the Corona opportunities, avoids personalizing attacks on Biden, and pushes Establishment Democrats to adopt a program that meets growing demands from everyday Americans for help in this crisis.

That strategy can be pursued by:

• deploying the powerful organization that has been built to critical races in critical states thus demonstrating a capacity to both elect progressives and make a difference in the presidential race;
• supporting emerging workplace, housing and other on-the-ground efforts as people struggle to stay alive and economically afloat, and; 
• negotiating with centrist/establishment Democratic Party decision-makers (Biden and his campaign organization and the Democratic National Committee) to create the united front required to defeat Donald Trump.

The broader goals embodied in Sanders campaign will not be won this year or next.  At least a ten-year timeline is required to achieve them.  Defeating Trump in 2020 is a prerequisite to wider victories.  Radical patience is required now; it is the long-distance runner who will win this race.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 

On April 7, 2020’s Democracy Now, Amy Goodman asked AOC “What is happening with [Sanders] campaign right now?”  Her response is interesting both for what it says and what it omits:  “…I do know that…the senator and I have both been focusing very heavily on COVID relief…We need to make sure…there are very strong concessions and accommodations made for a progressive future in our country…we need to see very serious movement toward a single-payer healthcare system, a living wage, towards justice for incarcerated people and justice for our immigrant populations…[W]hen it comes to the specific things, ultimately, that is up to the senator.  (emphasis added)…we must continue pushing to make sure, particularly on climate change, what kind of agenda is being formed right now, and not only what that agenda is, but who is going to be making those decisions and really administering and executing on that agenda in a potential administration.”  (Does that look a lot like what’s above?)

It’s not only what’s said that’s important.  The only question that is “ultimately up to the senator” is  “running”, and she says not a word about it.

After describing her criticism of some left-wing activists, a March 30 Politico article title reads, “AOC breaks with Bernie on how to lead the left.”  (Grant at the outset that media like to emphasize conflict.)  It concludes, “Bernie is the first leftist politician who has received a national platform in a long time in this country, and so some people say that every leftist politician has got to be like Bernie,” [Justice Democrats spokesman Waleed Shahid] said. “But AOC is a different person with a different set of life experiences. So how she leads will be different. I don’t think it’s a difference in ideology — it may be a difference in approach.”  

Sanders needs to pay attention to that “difference in approach”.

…

Note:
Today, 7 April 2020 at 9:00 p.m. EST Joe Biden will have a news conference on CNN.  Had Bernie been following the strategy outlined above, he could have been part of that news conference to announce the united front to defeat Donald Trump.