He may have lost the battle, but in many ways, Sen. Bernie Sanders may have won the war.
For a second straight presidential election cycle, the populist senator from Vermont came up short in the race for the Democratic nomination. But as the 78-year-old independent lawmaker and self-described democratic socialist gives one of the major addresses Monday night as the Democratic National Convention gets underway, Sanders is able to claim a victory of sorts.
“On all of the ideas that we have been campaigning … understanding that health care is a human right, the need to raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour, the understanding that climate change is an existential threat and that we can create millions of jobs (by) transforming our energy system,” Sanders said Sunday in an interview on 360aproko News. “We have made enormous progress in bringing the American people in our direction, especially the younger generation.”
Indeed, the party and presumptive nominee Joe Biden have moved in his direction, as they try to iron out the differences from the primary and present a united front going into November.
Former longtime Sanders aide and adviser Phil Fiermonte emphasized, “Bernie’s agenda has won the day. There’s no question in my mind that the future of the Democratic Party is a progressive future.”
“Bernie and his movement have moved the progressive agenda forward in a dramatic way and you’re going to see that at the convention and I think you’ll see that in the Biden-Harris candidacy. There’s no question that it will be a much more progressive campaign that otherwise would have been if Bernie had not been there the past five or six years pushing his national progressive agenda,” Fiermonte told 360aproko News.
It was a very different story four years ago.
After a divisive primary battle, Sanders endorsed presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton. But there was plenty of bad blood at that summer’s Democratic convention in Philadelphia – which was rocked by progressive protests that were televised live on the national cable news networks. The deep divisions were a contributing factor in Donald Trump’s upset victory over Clinton.
Four years later, the left once again fell short, as progressive standard-bearers Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts were defeated in the primaries by more moderate former Vice President Biden.
But this time around, with a common enemy in the White House, the worst pandemic this country’s faced in a century and a primary process that ended much earlier than four years ago, a repeat performance of the widescale enmity of 2016 could well be avoidable.
Sanders has been given a speaking slot for the convention’s opening night on Monday, meaning he’ll help set the tone for the entire week. The Biden campaign noted on Monday that the senator will have eight minutes to speak – much longer than most speeches in a convention that’s been condensed to just two hours of programming per night. And both Sanders and Warren – as well as other major progressive leaders and organizations – are firmly backing Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California.
“The future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake. We must come together, defeat Donald Trump and elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our next president and vice president. My friends, the price of failure is just too great to imagine,” Sanders will stress on Monday night, according to an excerpt of his address released in advance by convention officials.
Even before Biden clinched the nomination, the former vice president started adopting some of Sanders and Warren’s leading progressive policy proposals. And Biden and Sanders teamed up to form task forces that found common ground on key issues. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York – a leader of the younger generation of progressives and champion of the Green New Deal – co-chaired the climate change panel that produced a climate change proposal more far-reaching than the original proposal introduced by Biden last year during the primary campaign.
The platform also reportedly is expected to endorse paid family leave and other progressive policies, while welcoming those who back “Medicare-for-all” — without formally endorsing it.
That’s not to say some voices on the far left aren’t angry. Plenty of them have vocalized their displeasure toward Biden as the nominee – and with his naming last week of Harris as his running mate.
There was an outcry by some on the left in recent days at the inclusion of moderate Democrat and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who was a 2020 primary contender, and former Ohio governor and 2016 GOP presidential candidate John Kasich as convention speakers — while some well-known progressive voices didn’t make the list. And some Sanders delegates vowed to vote against a party platform that doesn’t endorse “Medicare-for-all.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who along with Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the quartet of first-term progressive congresswomen of color known as The Squad, touted on Saturday that she voted against the party platform, tweeting that “as a party, we must push for a future where every resident has the ability to thrive. That means we need a platform that works to rid our society of oppression and greed. Unfortunately, in my view this platform does not do enough.”
Neil Sroka, communications director for the progressive group Democracy for America, acknowledged that “there are people that are really disappointed in how the primary came out and there are certainly going to be a number of restive elements among Bernie Sanders delegates.”
But Sroka, a locally elected official in Michigan and 2020 convention delegate who supported Sanders in this year’s nomination race, said that unlike in 2016, now “it’s very clear that the future of the Democratic Party is continuing to move in a progressive direction” and added that “Biden has underscored this by calling himself a ‘transitional’ president – that gives progressives much more room to feel like they have a stake in this party.”
With a common mission of ousting Trump from the White House, Sanders remains optimistic Democrats will stay united this autumn.
“A lot of my supporters are not enthusiastic about Joe Biden. You know why? I ran against Joe Biden. But I think there’s an overwhelming understanding that Donald Trump must be defeated, Biden must be elected, and that the day after he is elected, we’re going to do everything we can to create a government that works for all of us,” Sanders said on Sunday.
Sanders also pointed to continued success by the left in this year’s Democratic congressional primaries. Noting the upset victory by first-time candidate and educator Jamaal Bowman over veteran Rep. Eliot Engel of New York and the defeat of longtime Rep. Lacy Clay of Missouri by Black Lives Matter activist Cori Bush, Sanders noted that “the progressive movement has been making enormous progress.”
The populist senator had endorsed Bowman and Bush – and also backed ‘Squad’ members Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, as they fended off primary challenges from more moderate contenders this summer.
Ocasio-Cortez gets a minute of speaking time on Tuesday – and will be part of a pre-recorded segment on Wednesday night.
Fiermonte told 360aproko News that heading into the convention, “Bernie feels very, very, good about the support his agenda has garnered among the American people and within the Democratic Party.”
And Kurt Ehrenberg – a longtime New Hampshire-based progressive and labor activist who advised Sanders in both of his presidential campaigns – said, “I believe Bernie Sanders is exactly where he wants to be which is having run two successful but not nominating campaigns for the presidency and becoming an historic leader in moving the progressive movement leaps forward.”
