Bernie and Democratic party favoritism

I’m so glad she wrote this, because I didn’t have the time:

Let’s be clear: Democratic party favoritism and a rigged system has kept Bernie Sanders in Washington for the late quarter century.

In 1990, Bernie Sanders faced a vulnerable Republican candidate, Peter Smith. He also faced a Democrat, professor Dolores Sandoval. The Vermont Democratic Party actively discouraged Sandoval from running, as is documented by the FEC complaint file about Sandoval’s dispute with former staffer Peter Freyne.

As early as March, 1990, according to Sandoval, the Chair of the Vermont Democratic Party, Violet Coffin, was discouraging her from running because of the “strength of the Socialist candidate.” In a March 29 letter to Coffin, Sandoval also protests the remarks of party executive director Craig Fuller, who had described the Democratic primary candidates as weak, which, as Sandoval wrote in her letter, “shut the gate after the first two male candidates emerged.” Several democrats demanded that Fuller lose his position, but as an April1, 1990 story in the Burlington Free Press notes, he kept his job.

“The strength of the Socialist candidate.” Gee, who could that be? The fact is that Sanders had acted as a spoiler in 1988, running as in Independent and drawing enough votes away from the Democratic ticket that Smith, the Republican, was able to win. Rather than cut off their nose to spite their face, the Vermont Dems clearly did the pragmatic thing in 1990, and quietly supported Sanders. One Republican down, and one liberal ally in office.

And did Bernie Sanders complain? Did he sputter with outrage that the Vermont Democratic establishment turned its back on Ms. Sandoval, a very liberal candidate, someone who could have been the first black woman to represent Vermont in Congress? Did he wax angrily on about the corrupt, rigged system? Did he thunder righteously at the way outsiders were being oppressed?

He did not.

He accepted the tacit endorsements of the Dems, the help of the NRA, and Mr. Sanders went to Washington.

Oh, but it did not stop there. Have a gander at Sanders’ electoral history. Notice that for most of the years he was in Congress, no one with a D beside their name even ran against him. And when they did? Well, in 2004,Larry Drown was described as “not campaigning actively,” and seems to have had no Democratic support. In 1996, Bernie Sanders declined to endorse Independent Ralph Nader (much to Nader’s pissy dismay) and instead enthusiastically campaigned for Bill Clinton. Liberty Union party member Will Miller noted that that Sanders enjoyed the favor of the Vermont Democratic Party leadership and was seated on the stage at Clinton events in 1996. Meanwhile, The guy running with a “D,” Jack Long, had to sit in the crowd. And in 1992, when “upstart Democrat” Lew Young ran against Bernie, the party headquarters was cheering Bernie on election night, not Young. Sounds like a pattern to me.

And did brave, untouchable Bernie Sanders renounce this “corrupt bargain” when he ran for the Senate? Did he fulminate against backroom deals, the evils of Democrats, and strike out his path as an Independent of perfect purity? He did not.

Go read the whole damned thing.