Sanders Emerges As Unifier Of Anti-Trump Forces At Demo Convention
By Nitya Chakraborty
Leftwing leader of the Democratic Party Bernie Sanders acted as the unifier of anti-Trump forces in the country through his highly emotive address on the opening day of the Democratic Partys convention, thereby facilitating the path of victory of Joe Biden at the coming Presidential elections in the United States on November 3.
His address along with the speech of Michelle Obama followed by the former Republican Governor Katichis part of the Democratic Partys game plan to forge a solid unity of left and centrists in the Party along with the disgruntled sections of the Republicans and traditional non Democrats who are disappointed with the Trump rule. Sanders also fully supports this strategy and he underlined that in his address that maximum unity of the anti-Trump forces will have to be achieved to ensure the victory of the Democratic candidates in 2020 elections.
What is significant is that Bernie Sanders gave no impression of any trace of the bitter fighting he had with Biden in the run up to the Presidential candidate selection in the Party and he focused more on the similarities which he has with the Presidential nominee including the economic demands. He emphasized more on the shifts that have taken place in Biden stand in recent days on the issues of Medicare for All and the minimum wage of US$15 per hour throughout the country. That way, Sanders was stressing more on the commonality of areas of understanding rather than the differences with the Democratic establishment represented by Biden..
Delivering stark warnings about disasters that would befall the nation and the planet under four more years of Donald Trump, Sen. Bernie Sanders, , urged his sometimes-recalcitrant supporters to vote for and campaign for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden this fall.
The future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake in this years election, the veteran Socialist lawmaker declared in his address. This reference was significant since many of the workers of the Left including some from Sanders supporters are not happy at the Biden-Kamala Harris combination as they feel that nothing will change even if they win since they are tied to the interests of Wall Street.
Sanders therefore extolled Bidens positive stands for making it easier to unionize, for raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and to legislatively lower both prescription drug prices and the age of eligibility for Medicare. The senator admitted the two differ on some key issues, notably Medicare For All and the Green New Deal, at least in name. They do not differ, he said on the chief imperative of ousting Trump from the White House since he is an authoritarian danger to the
Our great nation is now living in an unpredictable moment, he began. In the midst of this, we have a president who is not only incapable of understanding these crises of the coronavirus pandemic, economic collapse, and the continued demand for eradicating structural racism, but who is taking us down the road of authoritarianism.
Authoritarianism has taken root in our democracy and that wont happen under Biden, Sanders declared, And hell stop the coddling of racists, the dog-whistling, the bigotry and the xenophobia of Trump.
Sanders coupled his appeal to his backers with thanks to them for creating the movement behind him which has taken this country in a new direction towards progressive policies. Ideas such as Medicare For All, tuition-free public college education and the Green New Deal, once dismissed as arcane, pie-in-the-sky or too leftist, are now part of the political dialogue, he pointed out.
And Joe will pass the $15 minimum wage, make it easier to join unions and make health care affordable by the legislation Sanders cited.
But all of us yearn for a nation based on the principles of justice and compassion, Sanders added, saying to his backers in so many words, thats not Trump. Instead, the Republicans put our lives and our health in jeopardy with his grossly mismanaged response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Sanderss appeal is necessary. Post-election polls in 2016, when Sanders finished second to eventual nominee Hillary Clinton, after a bitter race between them and a party establishment thumb on the convention scales for her, showed 12% of Sanders supporters defected to Trump that fall.
That exodus may have helped Trump gain the slim winning margins he needed in key swing states such as Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, and Florida.
Polls of Sanders supporters this time around showed far higher backing for Biden. The latest, in the New York Times in early July, gave Biden an 87%-4% lead among them against Trump. And Sanders, this time around, drew fewer votes than he did against Clinton, so any exodus may mean less.
Still, the question remains whether the Sanders backers would sit out November, just dutifully vote for Biden this year or, given they are among the partys leading activists, really go out and campaignhowever they can, given the coronavirus pandemicfor the former VP.
Sanders set out to convince them to do so, by emphasizing the threat of Trump. The price of failure to oust Trump is just too great to imagine, he reminded his supporters. Out of about 3600 delegates at the convention, more than 1,000 are hardcore Sanders supporters and many of them are unhappy with Kamala Harris also. This small group thinks that Kamala is notb enough progressive and the Wall Street has welcomed her nomination.
Sanders had to assure this fringe among his supporters and outside that the first task is to oust Trump from the Presidency and once the new Democratic government takes over, there could be enough pressure from the cadres as also the movement outside to bring about the changes in the progressive direction. His view is that the Democratic Party is shifting towards Left, its pace may be slow but the direction is clear and now, it is upto the movement outside to influence the course of policy making once the Party takes over.
The US Communist Party is also in agreement with Sanders on this strategy. In fact while the left wing Jacobin magazine has been critical of the nomination of Kamala Harris for her past as a public prosecutor and the ties with Wall Street, the US Communist Party has extended support to Kamala and said the decision is destined to be historic in terms of forging ties with the African Americans and the South Asians.US CP also believes like sanders that the mass movement outside has to be intensified for persuading the Democratic establishment to switch over to the pro-people policies.
(IPA Service)
The post Sanders Emerges As Unifier Of Anti-Trump Forces At Demo Convention first appeared on Arabian Post.
No comments