Is a puzzlement. The hordes of Democrats who stood by Sen. [score]Bernie Sanders[/score] throughout the primaries as he spouted one socialist platitude after another are suddenly booing him. And he seems genuinely confused by it.
Here’s a video that captures a portion of his speech last night at the Democratic National Convention. In it, he keeps calling for party unity, telling the crowd, “Our job is to do two things — to defeat Donald Trump and to elect Hillary Clinton.” But their response is simply to jeer louder, prompting him ultimately to scold them, admonishing “It’s easy to boo.”
"It's easy to boo": Sanders pushes for Democratic unity in speech to California delegation https://t.co/GqK0QhoZ1b https://t.co/2788qD0ZLP
— CNN (@CNN) July 26, 2016
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Let’s see if we can help the former candidate understand why his supporters are inconsolable by reviewing some of his words and actions on the campaign trail.
In April, after winning eight of the nine past primary contests by double digits, he remarked on the fact that despite his wins, Hillary Clinton had picked up more delegates. This led a frustrated Sanders to complain once again that the system was “rigged” against him. It was the one point on which he and Donald Trump agreed.
The Clinton camp pooh-poohed any suggestion that she had the advantage by reeling in more superdelegates than her opponent. Team Clinton also sloughed off any suggestion by the Sanders camp that her “monied” connections helped her remain ahead of him in the race.
Several days ago, it was revealed via a massive leak of DNC emails that there was validity to Sanders’s grievances. The Democratic party was rigged and had worked systematically to ensure Clinton was their nominee.
He has every reason to be outraged and vengeful — and so do his supporters, who were sold down the river with him. But instead of going into full bellow mode as he did so often on the campaign trail, he has come out as a party faithful, actively campaigning for the woman who stole the nomination from him.
If he is too vapid to appreciate his supporters’ bitterness, then maybe it’s a good thing he didn’t win the nomination. The last thing we need in the White House is another clueless president.
