Only one obstacle blocks the path of Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont to the White House: The Democratic Primaries. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and bourgeois media have made no secret of their disdain for Senator Sanders and his base. Since the beginning of the primary campaign, the bourgeois media have fallen over themselves to boost any neoliberal candidate who could possibly beat Senator Sanders and maintain the status quo with little success.Collusion between the bourgeois media and the DNC will no doubt become blatantly obvious when the primaries begin in earnest as pundits take advantage of the fact that the primaries and caucuses take place on different days in order to construct a narrative that a certain candidate has gained enough momentum after one or two victories to be styled as the inevitable nominee
Although the primaries present an obstacle, Senator Sanders nonetheless has a path to the nomination that parallels how President Donald Trump cruised to victory in his party's primaries in 2016. With the Iowa Caucus still a month away, three establishment favourites, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, California Senator Kamala Harris, and former Texas Representative Beto O'Rourke dropped out after languishing in the single digits in the polls.
Now former Vice President Joe Biden, South Bend, Indianna Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg remain the establishment's only chance of blocking Senator Sanders's path to the nomination.
In a repeat of the 2016 Republican Primary as farce, the three remaining neoliberal candidates may very well cannabalise each other and split votes between them, leaving Senator Sanders and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren as the two front-runners in the process.
After letting the bourgeois media goad her into back-pedalling on her signature campaign policies like Medicare for All (first by saying that she wouldn't take any action on it until the third year of her administration at the earliest and then by echoing Mayor Buttigieg's bromide that Medicare for All should be a choice), Senator Warren has seen her support slide in the polls.
Senator Warren's stumbling poll numbers demonstrate that a large portion of her support initially came from voters who saw her as offering more or less the same thing as Senator Sanders, just in a slightly different package. Now as she presents herself as offering more or less the same thing as Mayor Buttigieg, just in a slightly different package, she runs the risk of relegating herself to second place behind Senator Sanders as he remains firm and consistent on working-class issues.
As the neoliberal establishment cannabalises itself and Senator Warren bleeds supporters after shooting herself in the foot, it does in fact seem that Senator Sanders could energise the party base, secure the nomination, and establish an intersectional coaliton of working class voters across the country to take the White House in November.Senator Sanders, on the other hand, has to contend with the fact that the oligarchs who run the DNC and their lackeys in the bourgeois media are acutely aware of the fact that his policies would contradict their interests
Of course, one cannot ignore the glaring difference between the relationship Senator Sanders and President Trump have with their respective parties. The Republican National Committee (RNC) publicly bristled at Trump's unsavoury past, crude remarks, vulgar personality, and the populist fervour he whipped up amid concerns that he would somehow cause an embarassment for the party of such intellectual luminaries as former Presidents George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.
Behind closed doors, however, the RNC nonetheless understood that Trump would benefit them by maintaining the status quo and upholding their party's foundational ideology of keeping the oligarchs fat and happy at the expense of the working class. Indeed, in spite of his unpolished, populist image, Trump represented a continuation of Republican leadership going back to the Reagan Administration.
On the campaign trail, both Reagan and Trump styled themselves as in touch with the common man, willing to stand up to foreign adversaries (the USSR for Reagan, China for Trump), and domestic threats (so-called "welfare queens" who took advantage of social welfare programmes for Reagan, undocumented immigrants who were supposedly bringing crime for Trump) all to make America great again. In office, President Trump has mirrored the Reagan Administration by gutting environmental regulations and social welfare programmes and lining the pockets of his cronies.As the neoliberal establishment cannabalises itself and Senator Warren bleeds supporters after shooting herself in the foot, it does in fact seem that Senator Sanders could energise the party base, secure the nomination, and establish an intersectional coaliton of working class voters across the country to take the White House in November
Additionally, as comedian Michelle Wolf pointed out during her routine at the 2018 White House Press Correspondents Dinner (the last dinner to feature a comedian), the bourgeois media benefit immensely from Trump.
Speaking directly to the media personalities gathered in Washington to celebrate themselves that night, Wolf confronted them, "You pretend like you hate him, but I think you love him. I think what no one in this room wants to admit is that Trump has helped all of you. He couldn't sell steaks or vodka or water or college or ties or Eric [Trump, his son], but he has helped you. He has helped you sell your papers and your books and your TV. You helped create this monster and now you're profiting off of him."
Indeed, not only did the bourgeois press give Trump a platform after recognising that every vulgar thing that he tweeted and every disastrous, seemingly ad hoc policy decision he made would generate revenue through higher ratings and more clicks on their articles, he would benefit their executives and corporate sponsors by letting them hoard even more wealth while the working class suffers the brunt of the consequences of his administration.
Senator Sanders, on the other hand, has to contend with the fact that the oligarchs who run the DNC and their lackeys in the bourgeois media are acutely aware of the fact that his policies would contradict their interests.
Unlike other candidates for the Democratic nomination, Senator Sanders presents a significant departure from previous Democratic presidents as someone who served as an independent for the majority of his Senate career and has been unafraid of highlighting his differences with the Republican Party while remaining committed to social democratic principles. Thus, the bourgeois media and the DNC have worked tirelessly to undermine Senator Sanders from the start by dismissing him as too radical, unelectable, or outright ignoring his candidacy in an attempt to defend their class interests.
Collusion between the bourgeois media and the DNC will no doubt become blatantly obvious when the primaries begin in earnest as pundits take advantage of the fact that the primaries and caucuses take place on different days in order to construct a narrative that a certain candidate has gained enough momentum after one or two victories to be styled as the inevitable nominee. As it stands now, Senator Sanders has a significant chance of winning the Iowa Caucus and then the New Hampshire and Nevada primaries.If the three neoliberal candidates do in fact cannabalise each other and in the process allow Senator Sanders to make it to the convention with a larger share of delegates, the DNC may see itself as having no choice but to use any means necessary to select a nominee other than Sanders
However, early victories for the Sanders Campaign may be tempered by the South Carolina primary and then the so-called "Super Tuesday" primaries, when a large bloc of states cast their votes. Former Vice President Biden currently has an advantage in South Carolina and other southern states, many of which will cast their votes on Super Tuesday.
If Biden wins in South Carolina and a large portion of Super Tuesday states as predicted, the bourgeois media will undoubtedly portray the former vice president as the inevitable nominee thanks to the supposed momentum gained from a strong showing of support in states like Alabama and South Carolina (even in spite of the fact that the Democrats have no chance of winning either of those states in November). However, any narrative portraying the former vice president as the inevitable nominee would unravel entirely if former Mayor Bloomberg and Mayor Buttigieg do eat into his delegate count.
If the three neoliberal candidates do in fact cannabalise each other and in the process allow Senator Sanders to make it to the convention with a larger share of delegates, the DNC may see itself as having no choice but to use any means necessary to select a nominee other than Sanders. Going against the will of the party base and arbitrarily selecting a candidate during the convention has historical precedent for the DNC in the form of the infamous 1968 Democratic National Convention which saw the nomination handed to then-Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, who wanted to continue American imperialist aggression in Vietnam instead of the more popular then-South Dakota Senator George McGovern, who wanted to withdraw from Vietnam.
Of course, the DNC may have miraculously learned from its resounding defeats in 1968 and 2016 when a deeply unpopular presidential candidate who was seen as embodying the status quo badly lost in November. If the DNC has in fact learned its lesson and nominates Senator Sanders, he will doubtlessly win the election in November.
