Establishment Democrats gearing up for a campaign to “stop” socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders from becoming their 2020 presidential nominee are playing with fire. That is, any concerted effort they make to block him from being the nominee will likely boomerang, only making him stronger.
On Tuesday, the New York Times reported on an increasing fear among the Democratic establishment and wealthy donors that Sanders could actually pull it off this time.
“There’s a growing realization that Sanders could end up winning this thing, or certainly that he stays in so long that he damages the actual winner,” David Brock, the liberal activist and Clintonite, told the paper, which reports that he said “he has had discussions with other operatives about an anti-Sanders campaign and believes it should commence ‘sooner rather than later.'”
It’s harder to imagine establishment Democrats and former Clinton loyalists could do more to ensure Sanders becomes the nominee — or at least that he takes the fight all the way to the convention — than to allow him to portray the opposition as being funded by wealthy donors and insiders who want to drown out the voice of the people. Efforts that party insiders made to halt the rise of Donald Trump only helped propel him to the Republican nomination in 2016, and it would be a massive gift to Sanders this time around.
There are plenty of hucksters in politics eager to take advantage of the fears of rich people and convince them that with a well-funded effort, they can block somebody’s drive toward the nomination. But we’re living in a different era in which the value of big money donations has been reduced and voters are increasingly skeptical of warnings coming from elites. That’s especially true of those who are inclined to back an ideological crusader such as Sanders.
If Sanders is to be defeated this time, it won’t come from some sort of establishment-run effort. It will come from rival candidates attacking his vulnerabilities. He’s old, he’s a white male running in the most diverse field the Democrats have ever put together, he has had difficulty connecting with minority groups, and there’s a wide gap between his promises and his ability to actually enact them.
So, he’s far from some sort of lock to win the nomination. But if he goes down, it won’t be as a result of some Brock-type attack group.
