Sanders Must Now Choose His Battlefield

[The Magistrate]

43. Apples To Oranges, Sir, As You Know Well

Sanders 'led' in a crowded field, before any appreciable number of ballots had been cast. That caucuses do not represent actual voter sentiment has been demonstrated on several occasions, when states have both a caucus and subsequently a 'beauty contest' along with their state primary. While talking heads and enthusiasts may have been eager to opine in the early going of Iowa and Nevada caucuses, and New Hampshire (a tiny balloting in a quite unrepresentative sample), old lags know perfectly well no sound judgement regarding actually prospects can be made before a good number of ballots have been cast. In terms of coverage and commentary Mr. Biden may have been hanging on by a thread, but that thread was damned tough spider silk in terms of reasonable anticipation of how ballots would total once a good sized state weighed in.

Now that only two candidates are active, Sanders continues to get roughly the same proportion of ballots cast in his favor as he did in the crowded field. Just about all the rest are cast for Mr. Biden. To expect this will change is moonshine. Sanders is no political genius, he seems to have honestly expected the field would not clear, and he could snake out a plurality with no more than perhaps a third of the total vote, and then by extortionate blackmail stampede the convention into presenting him the nomination. This may work in left splinter factions like the Socialist Workers Party and its ilk, but it is not the sort of thing that happens in modern mass politics. It would, however, tend towards destruction of the Democratic Party. To Sanders, this is as valuable a goal as actually achieving the Presidency. Sanders views the 'Democratic Establishment' as an enemy of 'the people' every bit as rotten and wrong as the Republican Party. For him it is a 'win-win' situation, with election of an autocratic reactionary leaving the oppressed people no choice but to turn to radical leftists for leadership in revolution, since no other force will remain intact on the left to oppose the fascists.

"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."