By Natalia Castro
Bernie Sanders has left his Never Hillary fans confused as can be after he endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. Despite an entire campaign aimed not just against Clinton, but the entirety of the political establishment she represents, Sanders has sold himself out to the Democratic elite.
But his sellout might be too, little too late — and not very convincing to diehard Bernie supporters.
Just this March Sanders spoke to a crowd in Michigan of the power of the Super PACs supporting Clinton and the $15 million dollars of special interest money Clinton received from Wall Street alone. He used this, and her track record of secret meetings and lack of transparency accusing her of using campaign money as a form of political bribery, making Clinton the example of everything that is wrong with our political system.
Which is why it is no surprise under the promise of revolutionary reform, Sanders supporters vowed to never vote for Clinton. The Atlantic’s Clare Fornan in a May 2016 piece, “The ‘Never Clinton’ Campaign” explained after Sanders lost the nomination, Sanders supporters “may want unity, but not if it means a stamp of approval for a political status quo they believe is fundamentally flawed and needs to be fixed.”
Despite this very clear backlash, Sanders sold out to Clinton’s political game anyway. Sanders has endorsed the very Clinton campaign he once led the revolution against.
Sanders mundanely claimed this was all about party unity and being “stronger together”, but the voting block Clinton needs which Sanders maintains, is far less interested in their concept of unity.
One Sanders supporter, Ethan Winnett told the New York Times that Sanders might have been “duped” or “threatened” by Clinton and he vowed never to support her even with the endorsement. Sanders originally sought to inform his electorate of the crookedness and corruption of Clinton, and it worked.
The danger for the Clinton campaign is Sanders supporters perceiving that Sanders hasn’t just conformed to Clinton, but the political machine he worked to convince the people he was fighting against.
According to the New York Times article, Sanders “was resolved to keep his word that he would endorse the Democratic nominee and that he has been told by some high-ranking Democrats that he could become chairman of the committee that will work on trying to carry out a proposed $15 federal minimum wage.”
Sanders slammed Clinton consistently for being a Wall Street lackey and an establishment political pawn, now Sanders endorsed this pawn in an attempt to swing votes to the Democrats and get a new political position. If Never Clinton supporters are against the political system Clinton fuels, the Sanders endorsement of Clinton must be a rude awakening, now seeing the corruption of their own “advocate” buying into that system.
Natalia Castro is a contributing editor at Americans for Limited Government.
