Bernie vs. Hillary: Trouble

Bernie Sanders is not simply a more liberal version of Hillary.   He is the anti-Hillary. 

When the Democratic nomination is all wrapped up I fully expect to see Bernie and Hillary on a stage together, smiling and holding their hands together held high.   That is where the story leads for the candidates.   

The problem for Democrats is that this may not be where it leads for Bernie's supporters.  Why?  Because Bernie's message is a condemnation of Hillary.  

 (Of course, there is one giant Democratic Ace in the Hole:  Republicans.  Bernie supporters won't be convinced to vote for Hillary by Hillary, but Ted Cruz and Donald Trump and Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich will likely do it.)

Bernie's supporters have been taught--by Bernie--that the problem is Hillary.   

A simple way to look at the Democratic candidates is on some sort of left-right ideological lineup, with Hillary being moderately liberal and Bernie being very liberal.   Republican presidential candidates describe it exactly that way, except they say that Hillary is far left and Bernie is a crazy communist left, even worse than Hillary.

Bernie describes a different landscape.   His opponent is the established power structure of America, and Hillary is in it.    Hillary is a nicer version of the enemy, but still at bottom Hillary is part of the problem in Bernie's analysis.

***Bernie opposed the Iraq war.   Hillary supported it.

***Bernie says Israel needs to compromise to get peace.  Hillary assured AIPAC she toed their line.

***Bernie says the billionaires are screwing the average American because class warfare is an inevitable feature of society.   Hillary has billionaire friends and says the problem is bad values, not economics.

***Bernie says that campaign donations from powerful special interests have corrupted the system and the people who get them.  Hillary gets big donations and says she operates as a successful practitioner of liberal progressive politics within the system and it is the only system we have.

***Bernie says we need massive fundamental change, a revolution, and anything less means we go nowhere.   Hillary says that major change has been tried and blocked at every turn by  the vast right wing powers but that incremental change has happened and will happen in the future if one takes small achievable steps.

***Bernie says that great wonderful things are possible, soon, if we just grab the revolution we need, so Americans should think big.  Hillary's offers a program of incremental change, saying that progressives are surrounded by opponents so we need to do what is possible and not over-reach and get nothing or go backward.

So, on fundamental understanding of the problem, on policy, and on tactics Bernie is different from Hillary and posits Hillary as part of the problem.    Many of Bernie's supporters  share that view and are as angry with Hillary as they are with Republicans.  (This happens, in religious purges over doctrine, in revolutionary factions, and it is happening now in the Republican Party, with the Freedom Caucus at war with the Boehner/Ryan establishment and with Ted Cruz at war with presidential RINOs.)  

October, 2015 on CNN.  Same message today.

Democratic voters are frustrated.   They had voted for hope and change and got a lot of gridlock.  Bernie Sanders has enormous appeal among progressives who are impatient with the Obama presidency.  Bernie--like Trump and Cruz--say we can win, win, win if we simply grab the change that is possible when the people use the power they have.   People voted in gridlock but don't like it.  They voted for good government.

There are now five political futures left on the political table.  The election is about which two of these visions will survive the nomination process.   There are two establishment candidates, Hillary and Kasich, and three candidates of substantial change, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, and Ted Cruz.

Bernie's: the middle class taking power away from billionaires.

Hillary's: incremental progressive change.

Trump's: America first populism.

Cruz's: Christian values hard right conservatism.

Kasich's: establishment incremental conservative change.