In a certain sign that the resentments felt by the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party have not been soothed, the Hill reports that the left is threatening to put up primary opponents against Democratic lawmakers who are too accommodating to President Donald Trump. The strategy is likely to provide headaches for Democrats who are running for reelection in red states that were carried by Trump in the 2016 Election. Ten Democratic senators, including Joe Manchin of West Virginia, may be targeted.
Sanders supporters feel that their candidate was cheated out of the Democratic nomination by party establishment figures who favored Hillary Clinton.
Clinton was thought to be certain to win against the mercurial Donald Trump. As history shows, things went a little differently. Sanders supporters are still seething and suggest that the venerable socialist from Vermont would have won if he had been the Democratic nominee. The theory is an interesting one and can certainly be the subject of an alternate history story.
In any case, the Sanders left wing of the Democratic Party has decided to show its grassroots strength by threatening Democrats who stray from the straight and narrow of total opposition to all things Trump. The problem is, the constituents of those lawmakers may react badly if their senators and congressmen are too inflexible in their relations with the president.
They may take out their disquiet at the polls, electing Republicans and padding the GOP margins in Congress instead of whittling them down.
The battle for the future of the Democratic Party is taking place between the left wing and the far left wing. The first skirmish has already been fought in the race to elect a new chair of the Democratic National Committee.
The far left candidate Rep, Keith Ellison was narrowly defeated in favor of the just leftist former Obama labor secretary Tom Perez. Some in the Sanders wing are already claiming that the fix was in there as well.
What this blood letting may lead to is anyone’s guess. Some are urging that Sanders, who is still officially an independent, form a third party. Such an event would be a political earthquake that would change the face of American politics forever.
