Bernie Sanders: Democratic Party Must Change To Earn My Support

In his first interview since the New York primary, Bernie Sanders explained that he still has a path to the nomination, he will continue until the convention, and Clinton needs to change her platform if she expects his endorsement. It might not just be Clinton who will be pressured to change. Win or not, Sanders supporters are already mulling a massive rally for the DNC in July according to the Los Angeles Times, demanding that campaign finance reform, breaking up “too big to fail” banks along with many other policy positions be adopted.

“It is not just about me, it has never just been about me,” Sanders told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Thursday, when asked about getting his political movement behind a Clinton candidacy (the full transcript is on Real Clear Politics).

“It is a two-way street. I want to see the Democratic party have the courage to stand up to big money interests in a way that they have not in the past, take on the drug companies, take on Wall Street, take on the fossil fuel industry, and I want to see them come up with ideas that really do excite working families and young people in this country.”

Bernie Sanders highlighted some of the agenda the DNC and Clinton need to adopt, including raising the minimum wage to a livable wage and guaranteeing access to healthcare.

Clinton’s campaign has endorsed a $12-an-hour minimum wage and working with state and local governments to take their minimum wages past the federal level. Sanders proposed legislation for a federal $15-an-hour minimum.

In healthcare, both candidates promote the idea of health care as a basic human right. Clinton’s policies aim to expand the subsidies and coverage from President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Bernie Sanders endorses a single payer system similar to Canada’s, where all people are covered under a public option, but private doctors can still operate outside the system.

Sanders also promotes a number of policies to bring down prices from pharmaceutical companies, including direct negotiations through Medicare, which is currently illegal. The Vermont senator has also proposed outlawing “pay-for-delay deals” that prevent generic drug manufacturers from releasing timely cheaper medicines according to his campaign website.

Exactly how far Hillary Clinton and the Democrats would have to move their own positions to the left is not clear, but as the campaign gets more heated, it will likely become harder for Bernie Sanders supporters to change allegiances.

“So the agenda that we’re fighting for is attracting millions of people. They have a right to vote for that agenda. They have a right to select who they want to see lead that agenda,” as Bernie Sanders explained.

Of course, the nomination isn’t the only thing on the minds for supporters of the Sanders campaign. Creating a lasting movement has been the goal for progressive activists for years, and, according to Ben Wikler of MoveOn.org, “This movement is here to stay.”

But that’s not an easy prediction to make.

Past grass-roots campaign organized by Democratic presidential candidates have managed to rock the vote, but have failed to have lasting influence.

In 2004, Howard Dean’s campaign had a similar liberal grass-roots tone to the “Feel the Bern” movement, but when he tried to remake it into a progressive political power, called Democracy for America, he had negligible results.

Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign was one of the most sophisticated grass-roots efforts in the history of American politics, but when he tried to make it into “Organizing for America” the effort failed and Obama lost a significant tool to move the liberal policy forward.

Can Bernie Sanders succeed where Obama and Dean failed?

As much as progressives likely loathe the idea, “Feel the Bern” may want to take note of the success of far-right political movements over the past few decades, as Wikler pointed out.

“Sanders could turn out to be, for progressives, what [Barry] Goldwater was for conservatives in 1964. Goldwater lost, but he paved the way for Ronald Reagan 16 years later. We don’t want to wait that long.”

More recently, the Tea Party movement has forced out politicians with close ties to Wall Street like Eric Cantor, put their own candidates like Ted Cruz into Congress, and forced their agenda into the heart of the Republican party. Now, tea party candidate Ted Cruz is second for the GOP nomination, and outsider Donald Trump is the first. Establishment candidates have largely been routed from the race, except for John Kasich.

Bernie Sanders will most likely not win the 2016 nomination, but his agenda and campaign organization could have a lasting effect, making the Democratic party more about progressive ideas and less about being the party that simply isn’t the GOP. The real test starts at the convention, and Sanders promises to be there.

[Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images]