Why the DNC Does Not Like Sanders
Sometimes I think I should keep my mouth shut about politics, but honestly, it is only a passing thought. My brother, father, grandfathers, and uncles all served in the military. They fought for our right to speak our minds, to participate fully and equally in the democratic process, and keeping my mouth shut would only serve to dishonor their sacrifices. I know that my father does not always agree with my point of view, but I also know he would be greatly disappointed in me if I did not express it. So here I am, talking politics again.
I have said it before, and I will say it again – I support Hillary Clinton for President. But that does NOT mean I agree with the tactics being taken by Debbie Wasserman or other members of the Democratic National Committee. At the same time, I can, in fact, understand it a bit. Let me try reframe the situation a bit.
It is April your junior year in high school. You are an active member of Drama Club. In fact, this year you served as the Drama Club Secretary. There is nothing you have wanted more, worked harder for, than to be President of the Drama Club your senior year of high school. You have been working for this since first grade, when you played Gretel in the high school’s production of Sound of Music. And everyone in Drama Club knows this. And while they do not all like you, they respect your work ethic – the fact that you have worked set design and lighting and spent evenings painting props in addition to playing ever larger roles in the productions themselves. Sure, some of the current sophmores and freshmen think you are overbearing and “no fun”, but everyone knows you are going to be President of Dram Club next year.
The day comes in Drama Club where those who want to be club officers the next year all get up and declare their candidacy. As far as you know, no one else is even planning to run for President. This is yours.
About 5 minutes after the meeting starts, a guy walks in the room. You know him. He is an active member of the Speech and Debate team. He has even had a bit role or two in some of the Drama Club productions over the last couple of years. He is a pretty good guy who often hangs out with members of the Drama Club, though he has always been very careful to identify himself as a Speech guy, NOT a Drama guy.
After you announce that you are running for Drama Club President, this guy then stands up and says he is running for Drama Club President, too. You are kind of baffled. It is not that you do not like the guy, but he has never shown any interest in being part of Drama Club before, and certainly never indicated he wanted to be President of Drama Club.
But, suddenly there is this guy. And those freshmen and sophmores who do not really like you are all excited. He is new, and he is fun. He is engaging and charismatic and has some actually pretty great ideas for club – like maybe doing Sondheim instead of Rogers and Hammerstein for the musical the next year.
You do not think the Drama teacher will approve Sondheim, but say you could probably get away with a Weber Rice production, maybe even JCS…
People start talking, and you and your friends realize the room is pretty split. Probably 12 votes for you and 10 votes for the other guy. It is going to be a tight election, but you should be able to pull it out.
And then, one of the sophmores who is supporting the Speech guy speaks up. He says – “You know, in order for Drama Club to be funded by the school, we have to have at least 20 members. If you do not elect Speech guy, me and my friends,” he indicates a group of seven freshmen and sophmores, including himself, “will not join Drama Club next year.”
Despite having talked about how important Drama Club was in his speech announcing his candidacy, Speech guy does not say anything about this.
And now, you are worried. If 7 people in the room currently choose not to join Drama club next year, you are down to 15 members. Sure, on average you get 5 new members from the incoming freshmen each year, but you cannot guarantee that, especially since the people most likely to encourage new freshmen to join are the sophmores.
The seniors in the room protest, of course, as it would be your last year, but they are pretty much all your supporters anyway. The sophomore just shrugs. He has two more years of high school, so missing drama for the next year will not be fun, but he will still have his senior year. The freshman are even more in support of this, as they have three years left of highschool, so missing one year of Drama Club is no big deal at all.
Either you let Speech guy win, or you do not have Drama Club next year. Maybe some of the underclassmen will decide over the summer that they want Drama Club more than they want to get their way. Maybe they will not.
You are being blackmailed.
Until April of 2015, in his FEC filing to run for President, Bernie Sanders had never identified as a Democrat. Some of his earliest wins for political office came against Democrats. And like it or not, when someone who has never wanted to be part of your club suddenly comes in and says I want to run your club (because the President of the US is the leader of their political party), it is not super surprising that the people who have worked their asses off to build the club are unhappy about it.
Again, this does not excuse the actions of the DNC, but maybe it helps people understand them.
