Ashok Dhillon
Jul 15, 20164 min
Upon the start of the campaign for the Democratic nomination for the President of United States, Bernie Sanders was given little to no chance to survive the first few weeks of the campaign.
The longest serving independent Senator from Vermont, was practically unknown to the public, till he decided to make a bid for the Democratic Party nomination, to run for the President of the United States. Even then, he was not taken seriously because of his long years of un-flamboyant (albeit respected) work history in Washington, his perceived weaknesses vis-a-vis other candidates, his age, and the acknowledged unassailable strength and position of the leading candidate going into the race, former Secretary of State, Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton.
But from the start Bernie confounded his critics and detractors by mounting a challenge that pushed him quickly to second place behind the supposedly unassailable front runner Hillary Clinton. He then went on to surprise on a number of fronts. Eschewing large sponsors and donors, Bernie appealed to the little people for small contributions ($20+), and managed to raise enough millions to mount a credible campaign. And, he did it by promoting a policy platform, and himself, as ‘Democratic Socialist’, knowing full well that in capitalist America, the word ‘socialism’ is anathema to the voting public, and a sure fire way of being repelled as a political leper. But, he did it anyway, and, astoundingly, succeeded in winning over and mobilizing a passionate and ardent nationwide following, that revolutionized American politics.
An impassioned, white-haired, grandfatherly figure, fired up in his zeal to correct the perceived growing and perverse injustices in America, Bernie caught the attention and admiration of the generally disenchanted, deeply cynical and ‘tuned-out’ politically dormant youth, and inflamed them with his message of ‘political revolution in America’.
And, like the mythical Pied Piper he led the growing, dedicated and supportive national following of the young and the disenfranchised into a formidable movement that threatened to overtake Hillary Clinton, but for her preordained cabal of ‘Super Delegates’, that Bernie had no access to. Yet, in spite of an arguably rigged race he fought like a pit bull for every single vote.
It was an extraordinarily courageous and audacious run.
Bernie ended his long and stubborn run by finally throwing in the towel and endorsing Hillary Clinton for President. He had been pestered to quit for months, once it was realized he would not be able to garner enough delegates, but he persisted till he became a hero to his fanatical followers, and a danger to the Democrats in splitting support and strength going up against the Presumptive Republican Candidate Donald Trump.
Upon endorsing Hillary Clinton he deeply disappointed and alienated some of his most ardent followers, who hated Hillary almost as much as they hated Trump. But by this time Bernie had advanced as far as he could go, without doing serious damage to his own campaign, Hillary’s campaign, and the Democratic Party’s coming battle against the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
In finally calling it quits, he probably elicited promises from Obama, who was openly supporting Hillary by this time, and later from Hillary herself, to incorporate his most controversial and important policy initiatives into her policy platform, the policies that were most important to his committed, passionate and now disappointed support base, were she to become President of the United States.
In running the campaign as he has done, Bernie has already achieved a number of no-lose positions. He will no longer be a generally well regarded, but relatively unknown, and in acutely power sensitive Washington, relatively unimportant independent Senator from Vermont.
From now on, regardless of the final outcome of the Presidential election, Bernie Sanders will be a power to be reckoned with in government, because of his large and impassioned national support base, and his extraordinary performance in the campaign.
His policy propositions which awakened the hereto largely suppressed aspirations of the youth, will change the direction of policy formation in the US, and force it to focus much more directly in addressing the needs of the young people of America, which till now had been given a rather prolonged short shrift by all previous governments.
Bernie’s ‘socialist’ policy platform and the subsequent enthusiasm and acceptance of it by millions across America had already changed the ideological and policy debate in this run-up to the election in November.
The Republican far-right has been discredited by the last two disastrous Republican Presidential terms, both on foreign policy and on the financial and economic front, by the resultant intractable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the financial and economic system busting 2008 financial crisis. Since then, the Republican Party has been in an advanced state of disarray and decay.
Now along comes Bernie, the ‘Democratic Socialist’, and in ‘Capitalist’ America his proposals, and proposed policies, find fertile ground and enthusiastic acceptance among large numbers of young and old across the Country. He has changed the policy direction, and shaken the ideological agenda. No longer the one-sided, openly blatant policy pandering to the powerful and wealthy, (The “Millionaire and Billionaire Class” as he calls it) will be so readily possible. Even Hillary had to shift her positions more ‘to the left’ to first fight Sanders, and then to desperately woo him.
In this campaign, Bernie Sanders transformed himself into a super hero to his almost fanatical supporters, his detractors, and to a degree the general public, by going out on the national election trail with such conviction, passion, stubbornness and stamina that he changed American politics.