Establishment Sharks Ganged Up on Bernie

By Howard Jordan – Jordan Journal

Former Vice President Joseph Biden surprising win of the majority of states on Super Tuesday left many Sanders supporters stunned by this unexpected turn of events.  “Boring” Biden thought by many to be a political cadaver was resurrected to the dismay of many of his detractors.  What lessons can be learned from this reversal of fortunes? Allow me to offer some brief observations.

First, progressives have to understand that this electoral contest was not what some now characterize as a “two man race” referring to Biden and Sanders.  The playing field was never even it was Biden-Bloomberg-Buttilieg-Klobuchar, the Democratic Party establishment, and corporate media vs. Sanders. No matter how well organized and resourced challenging these centers of empire is truly daunting for progressives. One need only look at events before and after Tuesday to grasp the level of the “shark” attack on Tio Bernie.

Under the invisible hand of Democratic Party leaders, some speculate including Obama, literally overnight Biden-Buttilieg-Kobluchar-and even the Spanish-speaking gringo Beto closed ranks to make sure that Sanders would not win the night. Individually they could not defeat the people’s warrior and his movement but together they emerged as a formidable force. While this den of liars argue Biden was under-resourced but pulled off a miracle this is largely fiction. Biden had millions of dollars of free publicity from the corporate media every hour on the hour by MSNBC and CNN who like a marvel comic champion the “Injustice League” for corporate America. Of course Biden did not need Bloomberg’s money the other branch of the ruling elite was handling the anti-Sanders publicity campaign.

The existence of the corporate elite gang is evident when we realize that immediately after Bloombucks loss in every state he was not troubled by having pissed away over 400 million dollars. As if the public were fools he argued that his mission was directed towards “beating Trump” when his real motivation was to Stop-Sanders and prevent him from fully unmasking of the billionaire class.  Bloombucks no longer has to run for President he has his class interests adequately represented by the increasing senile corporate hack Biden.

Second: Why is the mainstream media ignoring the fact Latinos the largest “minority group” went for Tio Bernie. Coverage on Tuesday night covered every the entire range of data from age and demographics, but conspicuously absent in every bar chart- the Latino vote.  After Nevada, the media was quick to return to “invisbilizing” the Latino community which came out for Sanders and chose to accentuate the African American vote for Biden. One of the dangers of the “People of Color” rubric is that it collapses the historical experiences of African Americans and Latinos (of various races and nationalities) into one cohort so that Latinos are left out in the cold. I will not attempt to explain why African Americans voted for Biden (see Fear Pervades Black Politics, and Makes Us Agents of Our Own Oppression, Black Agenda Report March 5 by Glen Ford (https://www.blackagendareport.com/fear-pervades-black-politics-and-makes-us-agents-our-own-oppression ).

Sanders focused his turnout efforts on working-class Latinx voters and that strategy paid off for him in California Tuesday. The Vermont senator received 49 percent support from Latinx voters to Biden’s 12 percent. In Texas, Sanders beat Biden among Latino voters 39 percent to 26 percent. Across all of the Super Tuesday states, he enjoyed an 11-point advantage, 36 percent to Biden’s 25 percent.

Three: While the road to a Sanders victory is a tough one already the same media that was prognosticating that he was the front runner to help galvanize his opposition now have adopted the Biden inevitability approach. They have concluded Biden is the nominee which while presumptuous also risk that Sander’s core group, about one third of the party, will choose to stay home placing Biden’s chances of winning in serious jeopardy. The expectation that Democratic establishment will beat Sanders and go on to defeat Trump may be an embarkation into Fantasy Island. Sanders has clearly indicated he will support the nominee of the party.

Four: The role of Elizabeth Warren.  I will not join my progressive brethren in bashing the Senator from Massachusetts though they have very legitimate critiques of the role Warren has played in this primary. If Warren (11.4 %) had withdrawn and endorsed Sanders (30%) in delegate rich Texas he would have prevailed over Biden’s (34.5%). For now I will merely state that at this time with no chance of winning the nomination the Warren team should consider withdrawing and endorsing Sanders.  The corporate sharks that are biting Sanders are also biting Warren. What purpose can the Senator have in continuing in the race if not to sink Sanders?

Five: Where do progressives go from here? The forces of real change must redouble efforts to win upcoming primaries though admittedly it is an uphill battle. Tio Bernie’s team must try to win all upcoming primaries. Five states — Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri and Washington — are holding primaries next Tuesday, and North Dakota will hold Democratic caucuses with more than 350 delegates at stake, including  the crucial 125 in the Michigan. On March 17 Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio are in play.

The Sanders forces must continue his embrace of Latino voters and try to increase youth turnout.  During this short window they should also continue as much as humanly possible to connect with African Americans voters whose ineffective outreach may be the fatal flaw that will cost him the nomination. The team must re-double efforts and also prepare supporters for a possible convention fight. At the minimum they have to push to influence the Democratic Party platform and the Vice-Presidential designee.

Familia, while the results on Tuesday were at best mixed, Latinos did prove to be crucial to the Sanders wins though corporate media has chosen to “sit us in the back of the bus.” The Latinos in all our splendor from “the hands that picked grapes” to the “hands that cut sugar cane” must remain committed to this transformative electoral movement led by a social justice warrior who has been fighting for working families for over fifty years.  Progressives while retooling we should be comforted in that our movement is far from where we once were, but has yet to evolve into what we are going to be. Let’s give some time to time.

Howard Jordan is a tenured Professor at Hostos Community College, attorney, journalist, and political activist.

Website: howardjordan.net