[…]
By William Rivers Pitt,
Truthout | Op-Ed
"I have come here to make
it as clear as possible as to why I am endorsing Hillary Clinton," said
Bernie Sanders on Tuesday, "and why she must become our next
president."
With that, it was over. While
Sanders has not officially suspended his campaign, the deal has gone down. The
success he earned on the campaign trail gave him a seat at the table when the
platform was drafted, and will almost certainly get him a top speaking slot at
the convention, but he has reached the end of the line. His Secret Service
protection detail has been dismissed. That is about as final as it gets.
It is, at first glance, a
preposterous thing in modern American politics that Bernie Sanders did so well.
Here was a 74-year-old man from a tiny state with wild white hair and a voice
like a bowling ball rolling down an alley in Brooklyn matched up against a true
juggernaut. The Clinton campaign had all the money, all the endorsements, all
the high-profile recognition one could ever ask for. Bernie had Bernie, and a
message.
The television behind me is
bellowing about Donald Trump and Mike Pence and Newt Gingrich and Hillary
Clinton. It yells even when I turn it down, and it still shouts when I turn it
off entirely. This is the campaign of The Shout, a roomful of fools and frauds
and farce that beggars likeness.
[…]
And then there was Bernie with
a bird on his podium and a message redolent of Occupy. "This
election," said Sanders on Tuesday, "is about the single mom I saw in
Nevada who, with tears in her eyes, told me that she was scared to death about
the future because she and her young daughter were not making it on the $10.45
cents an hour she was earning. This election is about that woman, and the
millions of other workers in this country who are falling further and further
behind as they try to survive on totally inadequate wages."
This was his message. Low pay,
economic inequality, Wall Street crime, looming environmental catastrophe, free
or affordable education; he gave the same speech by rote for more than a year
because the message cannot be repeated often enough, and in doing so, Bernie
Sanders inspired millions. He showed us what we can be instead of what we are,
and it was balm for the soul. The most unexpected presidential candidacy in
modern American history very nearly pulled it off.
That gives me hope. There are
a lot of people today walking around with their heads down, and rightly so:
This Trump v. Clinton contest is a perfect nightmare, made entirely for
television and with all the honor and character of a hard fall down a long set of
stairs. No matter who wins, we will all lose. People got invested in the
Sanders candidacy in a way not seen for decades. His departure is like the
tolling of a grim bell, solemn, distant and gone, leaving only a hum in the
ears to remind you it was there at all.
But it happened.
[…]
For a time, Bernie Sanders
showed us something other than fear or corporate hegemony or permanent war. He
showed us our best selves with a bull-throated roar, and people listened. He
reminded us that despite what we hear from the media, the struggle for justice
and equality is far from over. His departure from the presidential race signals
no end point in this fight; that it happened at all is proof positive that the
ground is richly fertile for genuine change.
Hillary Clinton is a fully
owned corporate entity with a faux-populist message drafted on the back of a
cocktail napkin at a Goldman Sachs convention.
[…]
These are our alleged options
now, a choice between Wall Street and reality TV.
But Bernie happened, is
happening, is. Not since Robert Kennedy have we witnessed so transformative a
presidential candidate. He raced down the long campaign highway that had been
promised to Hillary Clinton and fell ten steps short. His success is ours; it
is the scholarship of the possible, of what people sick of corporate politics
can accomplish. He did not win, but stands victorious. Do not forget what he
has done. Do not let your children forget.
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