The DNC is a corrupt organization responsible for giving us 2 terms of the Donald Trump administration. Their anti-democratic choices in the last 3 Presidential elections are destroying the party.
Both elections that Donald Trump won are a direct result of political choices made by the Never-Bernie Democratic Establishment. As I explained in Kamala Harris: Hillary Clinton 2.0;
In the 2016 election cycle, Bernie Sanders was surging to the be the Democratic nominee by focusing on a progressive policy agenda focused on anti-corruption economic and political reform. Alternatively, Hillary Clinton had been serving as Obama’s Secretary of State and was selected as the heir to the Obama Administration by DNC insiders. Hillary tried to shift the focus away from Bernie’s strengths of economic and political reform onto identity politics and culture war issues. She did that while dishonestly smearing Bernie as a racist and sexist who wouldn’t help in the fight against racism or sexism.
And the DNC allowed Hillary to use a Victory Fund meant for the Democratic Nominee to use in the general election instead in the primary against Bernie (Politico). DNC insiders forced Hillary onto us and Hillary’s opposition to the Bernie agenda meant that she could not run on his platform in the general election. By the time the race was just Hillary and Trump, Hillary’s entire campaign revolved around culture war pandering, that she was entitled to be President based on her credentials, that she would be historic by breaking the glass ceiling, and that Trump was bad. Her inwardly focused campaign of entitlement cost Democrats the 2016 election.
The rigging of the 2016 primary against Bernie Sanders went even further than slander and financial corruption, it involved anti-democratic Super-Delegates too. Bernie was absolutely demolishing Hillary among primary voters, but they kept receiving the same amount of delegates from the states. This Huffington Post article explains how that kept happening;
“Superdelegates are unpledged delegates to the Democratic convention, meaning that they aren't beholden to the results from the primaries…(the way pledged delegates are). They are, for the most part, current and former Democratic politicians. They make up 15 percent of all delegates (714 out of 4,765)…And they are free to support the presidential candidate of their choice…
At the polls Bernie Sanders won New Hampshire's pledged delegates by a landslide 22 percent. Bernie Sanders received 60.4 percent of the poll vote, just about 150,000 votes. Clinton received 38 percent of the poll vote, tallying just about 95,000 votes. Yet, all six Democratic New Hampshire superdelegates gave their support to Hillary Clinton, effectively erasing Sanders win, leading both candidates to leave the state with the same 15 delegates. The six votes…effectively erased the impact of 55,000 Democratic voters on this election.” -HuffPost
So as Bernie kept getting more votes than Hillary in the primary, she was able to steal the nomination through an anti-democratic coronation by the superdelegates. She was losing to Bernie because he had an extremely popular platform with widespread appeal. Bernie had a consistent economic message; the elites have way too much wealth and political power in America. They’ve rigged the rules of our economy in their favor at the expense of ordinary people and its about time that changes. But because Hillary slandered Bernie as a racist and sexist for focusing on economic and political reform, she couldn’t then adopt his economic message in the general election. So then Trump was able to win the 2016 general election because he acknowledged the reality that the economy was rigged for the elites and he was able to paint Clinton as the corrupt politician who rigged it.
Hillary tried to “punch Trump in the Taxes” in the Presidential Debate and he was able to respond by pointing to her own corruption.
At that point she had absolutely no response to Trump because what he said was true. So because the Never-Bernie part of the Democratic Party stole the nomination, Trump was able to usurp all of the enthusiasm in the country for an anti-corruption economic populist candidate. Trump said he would take on the corruption in Washington D.C. and that was and still is an extremely popular message. Everyone knows our government is corrupt but very few understand how or by who. Trump claimed to know who the corrupt deep state was and projected confidence that he would defeat them. Bernie could've beaten Trump by truly representing legitimate political & economic reform juxtaposed with Trump’s empty rhetoric, but Hillary represented the very corruption Americans wanted to get rid of. So the Never-Bernie Democrats gave us the first term of the Trump Presidency by rigging the primary instead of allowing Bernie to be the DNC nominee. Even Trump was averse to how undemocratically the DNC screwed over Bernie;
“Bernie Sanders was taken advantage of by your people. By Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Look what happened to her. But Bernie Sanders was taken advantage of. That’s what it is.” -Donald Trump
Then by the time the 2020 primary rolled around, Bernie was on track to win the Democratic nomination again. The DNC primary was robust that year with nearly 30 candidates, some genuinely popular and some propped up by billionaires. Kamala Harris peaked early on at about 15% voter support then dropped out before her home state of California expecting to come in 5th there. She never had genuine support in the Democratic party voter base, but “Forbesfound that…Kamala Harris, with 46 donors, initially had the most billionaire donors.” Alternatively, Bernie began as a frontrunner and remained there up until March of election year. Super Tuesday was approaching fast and the remaining Democrat politicians in the race had a choice; let Bernie win the nomination or coalesce around a single billionaire-backed candidate to stop him.
Bernie Sanders was on track to win the 2020 primary up until the 1% of America stepped in to stop him. Bernie’s success inspired the billionaire class to order their Democratic politicians to drop out and back Biden, who they viewed as the most electable option to replace Bernie as the nominee. Bernie did not have an electability problem. He was going on Fox News, calling out their lies, advocating for Medicare-for-all and getting money out of politics, explaining his vision of Democratic Socialism, and receiving thunderous applause for it.
Bernie would’ve beaten Trump in the general election for a 2nd time in 2020. The problem the Democratic Party had with Bernie was his anti-corruption ideology. The DNC is a corrupt organization controlled by oligarchs and manipulated to prevent genuine politicians like Bernie Sanders from gaining power. So the Never-Bernie Democratic elites jumped into the race and the politicians they controlled seemingly all endorsed Joe Biden overnight. As CNN put it on March 2020;
“The former vice president racked up three key endorsements in the span of 24 hours, earning the backing of… Pete Buttigieg.., Amy Klobuchar and… Beto O’Rourke on the same night.” -CNN
Bernie had legitimate grassroots support so he was not beholden to Billionaires and Super PACs, but basically all other Democrats lacked that support so they obeyed their donors’ orders. Biden’s entire rise to the Presidency was a result of oligarchy in the Democratic Party. All of Biden’s success was orchestrated by billionaires solely focused on keeping Bernie out of the White House.
“After the first week in March, billionaires looking to support a Democratic candidate for president had essentially two options: Bernie Sanders, the candidate who said, “Billionaires should not exist,” and Joe Biden. They chose Biden…
Thirty-two billionaires and their spouses gave to Biden’s campaign in March, including 27 who donated to Biden for the first time,…
Altogether, 94 billionaires and their spouses…donated to Biden’s presidential campaign. Twelve percent of America’s billionaires…
Before Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee, his campaign already had big billionaire support…Others, like Cory Booker and Pete Buttigieg, also attracted dozens of billionaire supporters. Now many…appear to be coalescing around Biden.”
Bernie has long been an independent Senator who caucuses with the Democrats, but he ran for President both times within the Democratic Party. Both times the Democrats stole the primary out from under him using corrupt, anti-democratic tactics. But Biden had little genuine support and the voter base was with Bernie, so Biden was forced to align with Bernie to win the election. Biden acquiesced to adopting Bernie’s policy agenda in the Biden-Sanders Unity Taskforce so the progressive base of the Democratic Party acquiesced to voting for Biden. It worked decently enough; Bernie got a say in Biden’s administration and Biden agreed to at least rhetorically support the Bernie movement. Bernie Sanders endorsed Biden as better than Trump and Biden won the election because of their partnership. Sadly, I watched Bernie go from full of fight and passion to twice beaten down and defeated. He seemed to accept that having a minor voice in the room was as good as it gets. And that all backfired now in 2024.
Back when I wrote Why Biden Should Participate in a Democratic Primary in June 2023, it was clear beyond a doubt that Biden could not handle another term, or even another campaign year, because of his rapidly declining cognitive fitness. Anyone with my or Dean Phillips’ viewpoint at the time was chastised by the Democratic Establishment as unserious and harmful to the party. Instead of gracefully exiting the race, Biden desperately clung onto power until his own polling projected that Trump would receive 400 electoral college votes and Biden had no remaining path to victory. Biden’s selfishness doomed the entire party who chose to constantly gaslight America about Biden’s mental fitness instead of facing the harsh reality when it was needed. Over a year of Democrats lying about what was undeniably obvious to everyone destroyed trust people had for the entire party. Then the debate between Biden and Trump happened and it was way too bad to ignore;
Even right after the debate with the “Biden beat Medicare” fiasco, famed election pundits said Biden shouldn’t drop out of the race and according to MSNBC at the time;
“To listen to bed-wetting Democrats, Biden needs to drop out of the race and let a new nominee emerge at the party’s convention in August.
Let’s be very clear: This isn’t going to happen. Biden won’t drop out of the race because of a lousy debate performance…
Quite frankly,.. suggestions that he drop out,.. are making a bad debate performance much, much worse” -MSNBC
The gaslighting from the out-of-touch Democratic Establishment was off the charts. Establishment democrats were fanatically trying to defend Biden. Even Bernie tried to defend Biden until the very end. Sadly now almost every time I post a pro-Bernie comment on social media I get his former supporters calling him a sellout. Instead of fighting the system he was seen once again caving to the corrupt establishment. But I still had faith at that time. I emailed his Senate office begging him to enter into the race and I explained how a Bernie-Harris campaign would've been the best shot to win 2024 for Democrats in my podcast Drop Out Joe;
“If that were to happen, you would have Bernie Sanders who truly represents economic reform that the American people want and true political reform against the corruption that has plagued Washington, D.C.
So not only would we replace the We Saved Medicare guy with the guy who's been in Congress leading the hearings taking on the pharmaceutical executives, we would also take away Donald Trump's biggest strength. Because Trump’s main appeal has always been that he is an outsider who is willing to take on the corruption in Washington, D.C., And for Trump, that is all empty rhetoric. But for Bernie Sanders, he has actually been advocating for years for the policy proposals and the ideology necessary for America to actually get rid of that corruption. So I think Bernie Sanders is the most well-equipped candidate in the 2024 election to defeat Donald Trump.”
But Bernie chose not to fight. As the sole leader of the progressive movement and the most morally courageous politician in our government for decades, it makes sense that he got burnt out. He did everything right and was winning the nomination twice then got chewed up and spit out by DNC insiders. He worked for decades for the chance to enact his vision of America and earned his opportunity twice only for it to be stolen from him by the very corruption he is fighting against. He settled for Biden and that was enough for him. He got to help write Biden’s platform and held one of the most important positions in the Senate helping take on Union-busting and price-gouging. It was progress, however incremental, and he took it. I can’t fault him for that. But he surrendered the fight, and the DNC anointed Kamala Harris with absolutely no primary. The Democrats once again refused any sort of legitimate democratic process in their nomination process. That choice itself solidified the Democrats losing the election. Biden didn’t go out and win the general election against Trump in 2020, he sat in his basement and coasted on the enthusiasm the Democratic primary generated. Not having the Primary took away that enthusiasm and was the truly fatal deathblow to any shot the Democrats had at 2024. That was obvious, at least to me when I wrote Kamala Harris: Hillary Clinton 2.0;
“Kamala Harris could bolster the entire Democratic Party by participating in a process of primary debates leading up to the democratic convention. That process would be a vital step in keeping the Democrats in power in the Senate as well as helping democrats flip the House. If Kamala Harris is anointed as the nominee, I think she will lose the general election. If there is a robust primary, I think any Democrat who emerges would defeat Donald Trump. I hope she is given the opportunity to earn the nomination and win the White House instead of having the nomination gifted to her just to lose the general election. I hope DNC insiders do not take away that vital step in this election cycle.”
But there was absolutely no opposition from the progressive base of the Democratic Party, so Kamala was able to secure the nomination without any fight. Progressives proved that they were no longer a force to be reckoned with in Democratic politics but instead were controlled opposition. America does have a corruption problem in our economy and political system. In 2024 Trump was the only one acknowledging that reality, naming his villains, and fighting against them. Democrats didn’t have that option this time around.
Donald Trump acknowledges the corruption but aligns with the most corrupt actors in Washington D.C. while in office. Trump admits the system is rigged, acknowledges the struggle people are feeling, then scapegoats immigrants and leftists while never addressing the underlying issues. Bernie provided an alternative explanation for the real anger people feel about our economy and political system, and it’s got the added benefit of being true;
“The reason is, in my view, that we have an unprecedented level of corporate greed today, more income and wealth inequality and the people on top want it all. And we need an agenda that says to the working class, we're going to take on these powerful special interests and create an economy and a government that works for you. And by the way, that can't happen unless you get big money out of politics. We got to get rid of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. So billionaires do not continue to buy elections.”
Unfortunately it was an explanation the billionaires of the DNC didn’t like. They made the choice that it was better to lose to Trump with bad candidates than win with Bernie. Elected Democrats are still somehow arguing that the party must favor their high-income base over Bernie’s economic populism.
If Democrats continue chasing the Enlightened Centrist Liz Cheney voter who never really existed outside of their elitist media bubble, that will be the death of the Democratic Party. The way to the rebirth of the Democratic Party is by recognizing why Trump and Bernie are such dominant figures of American politics. With that aim, we now have far better political analysis on Substack than from the leadership of the DNC;
“The Democratic Party, in its arrogance, believed…they had the winning formula: lean into identity politics, court the affluent suburbs, and ignore the cries of economic pain coming from America’s working class. But as 2024 rolled around, the cracks in that strategy became undeniable.
The Democrats have become the party of the wealthy elite, the party of woke symbolism over substantive change. Their message to working-class voters has been clear: "We know what's best for you, and if you disagree, you're either racist, sexist, or ignorant."
Bernie Sanders has been sounding the alarm on this for nearly a decade. He has consistently argued that the Democratic Party must return to its roots and focus on economic issues that resonate with everyday Americans. Instead, the party leaders chose to demonize him and his supporters, dismissing them as irrelevant "Bernie Bros" rather than recognizing the broad, multiracial coalition he was building. This coalition was made up of exactly the kind of voters the Democrats are now desperately trying to win back.”
I hope the Democrats get rid of the terrible Never-Bernie leadership that gave us 8 years of Donald Trump. I would much rather be ending the 2nd term of the Bernie Sanders administration that they stole from us all…
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