So today, contrary to his vow to take his battle to the Democratic National Convention, Bernie Sanders finally endorsed Hillary Clinton after his team managed to help develop what is being called the “most progressive Democrat platform in history” with one notable element being a compromise on free college education for families making under $125,000 which I could see being the Clinton equivalent of “Obamacare” in terms of landmark legislation if passed.
(Some are also speculating that Sanders was holding back his endorsement waiting to hear results of FBI investigation into Clinton’s e-mail use and now that they’ve said they aren’t going to recommend charges, even with her “gross negligence and extreme carelessness”, that final long shot to gain the nomination was gone.)
As you’d expect, many Sanders supporters are disappointed by this seeming betrayal of his principles. (Others take a wider view about how, even if Sanders didn’t gain the Presidential nomination, he may have done something more important that will make progress on many of his core issues and possibly change American politics for a generation.)
I’m a Sanders supporter and I keep oscillating – Clinton seems like such a horrible candidate for so many reasons and if I was in the States, the Green Party seems like the party closest to my own personal views that I’d likely support depending whether I lived in a safe blue state or a battleground state.
But at the same time, Trump hasn’t moderated (or really, shown any indication that he has the ability to be Presidential) *at all* and so Hillary becomes the “lesser of two evils” who would at least (probably) continue a somewhat moderate liberal approach to the Presidency like Obama has done.
Of course, hope springs eternal and there’s also the chance that Sanders continues to play fourth dimension chess and his endorsement of Clinton is equally a strategic move to ingratiate himself to Clinton supporters should further legal troubles imperil her campaign. Or the knowledge that if the Democrats take the Senate, Sanders becomes the senior member on the budget committee which is a powerful role. Or that this helps lay the foundation for a future run by Elizabeth Warren who combines the best of Sanders and Clinton in many ways.
So with the two major party nominees all but confirmed after both parties looked like they might face contested conventions, this continues to be the most engrossing, wacky, twisty-turny Presidential campaign in history!
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