Why Hillary Can't Win the General Election

Medium

Clinton declaring war on Sanders will further alienate his supporters

Yvonne C. Claes

I CAN’T LOOK: Even Lady Liberty is afraid of what will become of the Democratic Party.

Hillary Clinton is going to step up attacks against Bernie Sanders because she is “losing patience” with her Democratic opponent’s campaign and wants to pivot to the general election. She is eager to shake off Sanders.

This declaration of war came in the form of a message from a Clinton camp spokesperson to CNN shortly after Bernie was declared the winner of Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary.

Whatever shall I do?

I know what she and the corporate media want Bernie and his supporters to do: Go away. But that’s not going to happen. Ever.

We are taking this fight to the White House and beyond. Despite what the mainstream media hacks want everyone to believe, Bernie is in it to win it. And he is well on his way to complete victory over a deeply flawed candidate handpicked by the establishment to rule over the peons, i.e. the American people.

Not only was Hillary anointed before the first vote was cast in this primary cycle, she has enjoyed a flagrantly biased media, millions of dollars in corporate donations, and protection and propping from the Democratic National Committee (DNC), who at least some in the press acknowledge has done everything in its power to shove this most unpalatable candidate down voters’ throats.

Now Team Clinton, which apparently all these months has not been trying that hard to knock Sanders out of the race, is employing a new strategy, ominously called: “Disqualify him, defeat him.”

Jeff Zeleny, CNN’s senior Washington correspondent, delivered this missive. Clinton, according to her campaign, will go after Bernie’s gun record, which she has managed to twist in the past.

Zeleny added: “And then (the Clinton campaign) can unify the party later.”

At this point in the broadcast, viewers were treated to a loud off-camera groan. This audible objection presumably belonged to host Jake Tapper. Tapper seemed to realize that reuniting this dysfunctional family would require more than a few counseling sessions on a therapist’s couch.

Zeleny continued: “So party unity aside for now, one (Clinton) aide told me that will come later.”

No, it won’t.

Clinton and her handlers are playing a dangerous game, one that will hand the White House to Republicans. By declaring war on Bernie and by extension his supporters, Clinton is essentially attacking half of the Democratic Party, a portion of the party that is enthusiastic, motivated, and represents the future.

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

If this latest salvo doesn’t signal to her supporters that Hillary is in it to satisfy her personal ambitions — party loyalty and the future of this country be damned — I don’t know what else will.

Ironically, Bernie and his supporters have been treated like second class citizens by party elites who claim Bernie “isn’t really a Democrat.” Calls for him to drop out for the “sake of the party” have dogged him from day one.

Yet Bernie is the one who consistently has tried to hold all the squabbling factions together, even when the other side treated him poorly. For example, the DNC-sanctioned debate schedule deliberately minimalized his exposure to a national audience already familiar with Clinton.

Team Bernie did — and rightly so — question why the DNC would try to limit the time its candidates are in front of the American people. The answer, of course, is obvious but has never been publicly stated.

But never once did Bernie go off the rails and express contempt for Clinton or her supporters like she is doing now. Tuesday’s war declaration comes on the heels of Clinton berating a Green Peace reporter — who she wrongly assumed was a Sanders’ supporter — for questioning her about taking campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry.

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What the media and Democratic elites fail to appreciate is that there is a philosophical battle going on within the party’s ranks. Progressives will not vote for a candidate who is under FBI investigation and has taken millions from corporations and individuals whose companies help ruin the environment, stand as obstacles to universal healthcare, benefit from private prisons, and don’t pay their fair share of taxes or avoid paying them all together.

Speaking of the latter, in 2011 Clinton as Secretary of State pushed for a trade agreement with Panama that allowed the ultra-rich to avoid paying taxes by sheltering their money off-shore. It has now come to light that the German bank Deutche gave Clinton $485,000 in speaking fees after she resigned her position as SoS.

Accepting “speaking fees,” aka legalized bribes, is exactly the kind of immoral behavior Bernie supporters don’t want in a politician. They know that for every billion not paid in taxes by wealthy corporations and individuals, Uncle Sam will leave them on the hook to pay for everything, from the military to social programs.

And they are sick of it. They are also sick of seeing so many of their fellow citizens living in poverty or in jail.

Bernie warned that the agreement with Panama would not economically benefit the United States since Panama’s economy is minuscule by comparison. Correctly, just like his vote on the Iraq War, he voted against it.

It already would have been a tough sell to get Berners to vote for Hillary if she were to get the nomination. The “Bernie or Bust” movement only seems to gain momentum with each contest.

But to openly acknowledge that you aren’t even going to try to win them over and in fact will do your best to “disqualify” their leader (whatever that means) is not politically wise.

To alienate a group of voters who already feel they aren’t being taken seriously by the political establishment will only spell defeat for the Democrats in November’s presidential election.

Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, perhaps put it best. He expressed dismay at Clinton’s new strategy.

“Do not destroy the Democratic Party to satisfy the Secretary’s ambitions to be president,” he said on CNN.

It’s now obvious that Mrs. Clinton doesn’t care.

Yvonne C. Claes

Yvonne C. Claes is a former newspaper reporter who teaches high school English in Michigan. She loves Bernie Sanders and her two cats.#FeelTheBer