A Contested Convention Is Exactly What the Democratic Party Needs

[Petrushka]

Bernie Sanders will go to Philadelphia with more pledged delegates than any insurgent in modern history. Here’s what he could do with them.

by John Nichols

Joe Biden understands something about the Democratic Party and its future that his fellow partisans would do well to consider. “I don’t think any Democrat’s ever won saying, ‘We can’t think that big—we ought to really downsize here because it’s not realistic,’” the vice president told The New York Times in April. “C’mon man, this is the Democratic Party! I’m not part of the party that says, ‘Well, we can’t do it.’” Mocking Hillary Clinton’s criticism of Bernie Sanders for proposing bold reforms, Biden dismissed the politics of lowered expectations. “I like the idea of saying, ‘We can do much more,’ because we can,” he declared, leading the Times to observe that, while Biden wasn’t making an endorsement, “He’ll take Mr. Sanders’s aspirational approach over Mrs. Clinton’s caution any day.”

Unwittingly or not, Biden made an even better case than Sanders has for taking his insurgent campaign all the way to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. If the party is going to run in 2016 on a “do much more” agenda—as opposed to triangulating around the center—the Vermont senator’s supporters and like-minded Democrats, including Clinton’s progressive backers, will have to force the issue. Taking the Sanders insurgency to the convention is the paramount vehicle for placing demands that are ideological and, as Biden’s comments suggest, also strategic. That’s one reason why Sanders promised in a statement on April 26 to go to the convention with “as many delegates as possible to fight for a progressive party platform”—despite the fact that Clinton’s delegate advantage now all but guarantees that she will win the nomination.

< snip >


http://www.thenation.com/article/bernies-philadelphia-challenge/

[Buzz Clik]

1. Yikes!

[Petrushka]

7. 'night-night. Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite.

[Buzz Clik]

8. Exactly. Time to put the Sanders campaign to bed. There will be no contested convention.

Not much leverage when you lose by over 300 delegates.

[Petrushka]

12. Sweet dreams!

[Buzz Clik]

15. Oh, hell yes! It's fantastic being on the winning side.

[Faux pas]

2. Kickin'

[floppyboo]

3. morning rounds of the news - Sanders HAS to STAY IN!

Much of talk going on is Hillary campaign courting the never-Trump Republicans.
It's hard to forget DWS' dismissal of independent/progressive voters in this context.
Without Bernie still in the race, the veil will fall and the 3rd way will no longer be obliged to hide their purple hearts, beating red deep within.

[Petrushka]

5. DNC Chair: If It Were Up to Me, Independents Wouldn’t Be Allowed to Vote in Primaries

http://ivn.us/2016/05/03/dnc-chair-independents-wouldnt-allowed-vote-primaries/


There's a petition at the end of that article, saying:

Stop Taxpayer Funding of Party Primaries. If Our Vote Doesn't Count. Make Them Pay

[vintx]

11. DWS is a walking disaster. nt

[dana_b]

16. that just encouraged me to

send her opponent another $15.
timcanova.com

[Petrushka]

20. --->

[vintx]

4. Biden is right

Hillary's cheerleaders are wrong

[BootinUp]

6. Biden's philosophical argument which IS a valid point, was not

an argument to have a non-unified convention.

Look, the Dem party is today more liberal than 8 years ago, and as a result we WILL have a more liberal platform than we have had in 30+ years.

[floppyboo]

9. Obama has done his best to correct the Clinton legacy

but it is not time yet to rest easy, especially with another Clinton challenge to move right again.

[BootinUp]

10. Most Democrats know that Hillary had nothing to do

with the country moving to the right in 1970-1980. But some like to have a boogeyman.

[floppyboo]

13. I was talking about the 90's.

Remember Carter was president late 70's. Regan dragged the Dems right in the 80's. Don't need a repeat today.

[BootinUp]

14. Of course not.

[jwirr]

17. K&R

[Gothmog]

18. Sanders is lying about contested convention to keep small dollar donations coming

There will be no contested convention

[PeaceNikki]

19. That worked really well in 1980...

For Republicans.