Clinton Campaign: Bernie Sanders’ Candidacy Changes Nothing

Any doubts about the Democratic Party’s dismissive feelings for the Bernie Sanders campaign should have been erased by this Friday’s report from The Hill on the Clinton campaign.

The report, which was first brought to my attention by Matt Bruenig Election Team Data Analyst Larry, indicates that Clinton will not be adopting much- if any- of Sanders’ demands into her platform as she pivots to the general election.

The defanging of Sanders began in earnest in early April.

The Independent Senator from Vermont has never had a realistic path to the nomination. But the potential of an upset in New York had Clinton surrogates working overtime to ensure Sanders’ momentum stalled.

A CBS Evening News appearance on April 7 in the wake of the manufactured controversy over qualifications ended with Sanders pledging to support Clinton in the general election:

The media smelled blood in the water and began circling the floundering campaign.

The marginalization of Sanders’ independence has solidified over the past week.

On April 20, The Hill reported that Sanders campaign aides were working to make sure that the Democratic establishment had nothing to fear from a potential third party run by the Senator. Campaign manager Jeff Weaver appeared on Bloomberg’s With All Due Respect and told co-host Mark Halperin and John Heilemann that the Senator would never abandon the Democratic Party:

On the 26, Jane Sanders appeared on CNN to assure the channel and its viewers that again there was no chance of a Sanders independent run in 2016- no matter what.

Mrs. Sanders drew on the lesser 0f two evils trope to reject calls for any chance of an independent candidacy:

“We’ve been very clear right from the beginning that we will not play the role of spoiler,” she said. “The reason that he was active and he decided to run in the Democratic Party was just that: We cannot afford a Republican in the White House. We cannot afford a Republican appointing Supreme Court justices. So Bernie will not be running as an independent.”

The candidate, his campaign manager, and his wife were on the record as refusing to consider breaking from the Democratic Party. The primary voting on April 26 shut the door on any hope for a path to the nomination for Sanders.

Then, the Clinton team struck.

According to The Hill’s reporting, Clinton surrogates are now working to assuage fears that the former Secretary of State will tilt to the left in response to Sanders’ campaign.

First, the Clinton campaign says that it has conceded enough to Sanders and moved as far to the left as it can:

Clinton supporters argue the former secretary of State has already been forced to the left by Sanders, and can’t risk moving further ahead of a general election.

“I don’t know what’s left to extract,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), a Clinton supporter, said in an interview with The Hill.

Later in the article, another Clinton ally tells The Hill point blank that Sanders won’t get any concessions from Clinton, period:

“We can’t do it,” the ally said. “But there’s going to be a place for him to weigh in on the campaign and at the convention and he should have the satisfaction that he raised some issues that have been a part of the conversation.”

The report is worth reading in full for what it’s really saying- that the warnings from many on the left about the inevitable consequences of Sanders’ refusal to run third party have come true:

• The Senator’s promise to support the establishment candidate his campaign reacted to has made it so she has no reason to give up anything in her platform to him.

• The Democratic Party was never really challenged by Sanders and therefore his candidacy only acted to draw more people into the party machine.

• Now that Clinton has the nomination and Sanders’ support, she’ll leave his ideas by the wayside.

Power concedes nothing without a demand… that has real consequences.