Couple days late, but happy birthday to the songwriter and poet extraordinaire – Bob Dylan

A good friend of many years wrote to me last week arguing that Hillary Clinton has the lion’s share of the responsibility to unify the Democratic Party. Hillary, he said, must substantively reach out to Bernie in both words and practical deeds soon if she has any hope of getting elected.

I agreed with him, but I also see the process of how that has to happen a little bit differently. I would argue that it is imperative that both sides – Sanders as well as Clinton – show a spirit of compromise and accent their common battle against Trump, not hostility toward each other. Hillary should soon make meaningful concessions to Bernie, but Bernie and his supporters should realize that they can’t expect all of their demands to be met either. They too have to bend.

Let’s not forget that Bernie, notwithstanding all the claims and protests of his supporters, was the loser in this contest. Hillary was the winner – in both votes cast and delegates won.

The best scenario, as I see it, would be for Bernie to give up his run for the nomination after the last vote is cast on June 14 in the D.C. primary. At that time, he can (and should) continue to press his case on other issues – the party platform, convention rules, delegate seating, his role, and so on. But to continue his campaign for the nomination all the way up to the convention in late July, however, strikes me as a dangerous roll of the dice.

Trump could easily be the big winner, while Hillary and the American people could be the biggest losers. In that event, Bernie and his movement wouldn’t escape without paying a heavy price too. Their image and reputation would be badly tarnished. Much of the good will, enthusiasm, and promise that his candidacy generated could vanish in a flash. To brush off this possibility, as some do, is either naive or irresponsible.

Not everyone agrees, which come as no big surprise. In fact, many of his supporters say that Sanders should stay in the nomination hunt all the way to Philadelphia. Turn it into a floor fight at the convention, they argue. Any exit before then, they claim, would undercut his leverage on other matters being deliberated, not to mention any chance of securing the nomination. O’Lord, this too is misguided, in fact badly so.

To begin with, Hillary, barring something unforeseen, has a lock on the nomination. It is dreaming to think that Bernie has a viable pathway at this point. Admittedly, dreams have a place in politics, but only if they have some basis in reality. This one doesn’t. It’s pure fantasy.

Furthermore, the reality – not the dream – is that Bernie could drop out tomorrow and he would still have plenty of leverage at the convention on everything, except for who carries the presidential timber for the Democratic Party this fall. Again, that has been decided for all practical purposes.

Contrary to what some of Bernie’s boosters contend, his leverage doesn’t rest mainly on his delegate count. It stems largely from the legions of enthusiastic voters who supported him in the primaries and whose support Hillary needs this fall if she is to beat Trump. And no one knows this better than Clinton herself.

Finally, a refusal to concede the nomination to Hillary prior to the convention is the wrong fight to pick. Other fights are far more important. It will result in – not creative tensions (which are part of any broad, diverse, and dynamic coalition) – but sharp and lasting divisions at the convention and beyond, which will help no one – not Hillary, not Bernie, not their supporters, not the effort to defeat Trump, not the struggles to come in the years ahead.

Imagine what it will look like to tens of millions of TV viewers watching the convention (and what the implications will be for popular struggles going forward), if Bernie’s overwhelmingly white and youthful delegates are at loggerheads with Hilary’s Black, Latino, women, and trade union delegates over who the standard bearer will be. While the movement around Bernie is an incredible breath of fresh air and cause for optimism about the future, its potential will be realized only if it is able to build a “durable alliance” with the main class and social constituencies that are at the core of any transformational movement that has the capacity to effect a “new burst” of freedom, equality, economic security, ecological sustainability, and peace.

Right now most of those forces are attached to Clinton’s campaign, not Sanders’ movement. But that fact – especially as it applies to African-American and other people of color – seems to receive little attention from Bernie and his supporters. The energy, boldness, and imagination of youth, it goes without saying, is vital to the success of any movement and livable future, but it can’t substitute for the power, experience, and understanding of a broad multi-racial, male and female, working class-based people’s coalition.

One final thought of this wordy reply: uniting their two divergent streams of voters against Trump is the main strategic challenge as Bernie, Hillary, and their respective camps approach the convention. My guess is that Bernie, Hillary and the vast majority of their supporters are disposed toward unity, albeit not arrived at in a formal way, but rather in the course of a give-and-take debate, with a dollop or two of tension, and a good measure of creativity and compromise. Of course, everybody isn’t of that mind.

On the one hand, overly-zealous supporters of Clinton in the top (and lower) circles of the Democratic Party are inclined to freeze out rather than welcome Bernie and his delegates to the convention. And, on the other hand, the main organizing principle of too many of Bernie’s supporters is to turn up the temperature no matter what the circumstances or challenges. Politics for them is about nothing but militant and righteous talk devoid of any consideration of the larger dynamics, balance of power, and dangers of this moment.

Hopefully though, the tone, agenda, deliberations, and outcome of the convention will not depend on either of these two groups, but rather on what the two candidates – Hillary and Bernie – and the rest of their supporters do and say.

Hillary, if she is smart, will tip her hat and extend a hand to Bernie long before they meet in Philadelphia. And Bernie, if he’s serious about advancing a progressive agenda, will respond accordingly.

Harold Meyerson in American Prospect: I write this as a strong Sanders supporter (albeit one who never thought he could win the nomination), as a lifelong democratic socialist (indeed, for some years, Bernie and I were probably the two most out-of-the-closet socialists in D.C.) who’s been astounded and thrilled by Sanders’s success so far in pushing the national and Democratic discourse to the left. I write this with the hope that the Sanders legions can come out of this election year with the networks and organizations that can reshape the American economic and political order—bolstering workers’ power, altering corporate governance, diminishing the scope of finance. But to do that effectively, they’ll have to make common cause with progressives who’ve backed Hillary Clinton, most particularly with the unions that have backed her for strategic reasons but also know that their very survival depends on overturning the grotesque economic and political arrangements that have decimated the middle class.

Eugene Robinson in Washington Post: Bernie Sanders is playing a dangerous game. If he and his campaign continue their scorched-earth attacks against the Democratic Party, they will succeed in only one thing: electing Donald Trump as president.

I say this as someone who shares much of Sanders’s political philosophy; I, too, for example, see health care as a basic right. He has run a remarkable and historically significant campaign, pulling the party to the left and pumping it full of new progressive vigor. His crowds are almost as big as Trump’s and perhaps even more enthusiastic. Most important, he has brought legions of young people into the political process.

But he hasn’t won the nomination.

Hillary Clinton has an insurmountable lead in pledged delegates, earned by her performance in primaries and caucuses. In the aggregate, she leads Sanders by about 3 million votes. The will of the party is clear: More Democrats prefer Clinton over Sanders as their nominee.”

Joan Walsh in Nation: The defections of some supporters, the increased skepticism of even once-friendly cable hosts, and a rebuke by Politifact isn’t fatal to Sanders’s campaign, of course. What will be fatal to Sanders’s future as a mass-movement leader—as opposed to the messiah of an angry, heavily white, and male cult—is his continued insistence that his enemy now is not so much the corporate overlords, or income inequality, or the big banks, but a corrupt Democratic Party, epitomized by Wall Street flunkie Hillary Clinton, that has “rigged” the election to thwart him—as he raged in a tone-deaf speech Tuesday night, as cable news was showing the texted death threats to Roberta Lange in the background (which Sanders did not even mention … And in Thursday’s New York Times, Sanders campaign leaders and their supporters said they plan to escalate their attacks on Clinton and the party. Top strategist Tad Devine insisted he’s “not thinking about” whether the attacks will hurt Clinton in her battle against Trump; they will do what they can to run up his delegate count, especially in California.

Facebook post of John Case: I was asked why I don’t just go ahead and endorse Hillary. If she is nominated, of course, I will. And without reservation. I am, at my age, completely comfortable with accusations of “lesser-evilism” — and utterly numb to the affection in some left circles for “glorious defeats” or “feet firmly planted in mid-air victories”. Those with the luxury to avoid the personal pains and oppressions of the “greater evil” enjoy a privilege most working families do not.

The great Joni Mitchell combining the political/ecological and personal:

“Hey farmer, farmer put away that DDT now, give me spots on my apples, but leave me the birds and bees.”

Below is my reply to Randy Shannon who commented on my recent post, Hillary Clinton, Frederick Douglass, and imagination: A lesson in dialectics. And Randy’s comments follow. Both appeared on the list serve of Committees for Socialism and Democracy (CCDS).

My reply, I admit, is a bit caustic. And my only defense is that I increasingly find some – by no means all – of Bernie’s supporters a bit too righteous in their understandable enthusiasm for his candidacy. But with Trump the Republican nominee and Hillary, barring something unforeseen, the Democratic Party standard bearer, that righteousness should be tempered by the fact that the elections are entering a new phase and thus require some adjustments by Hillary and Bernie alike. This doesn’t mean that Bernie should pack up his campaign, but it does mean that a spirit of compromise and unity should figure more prominently in the modus operandi of both camps, as they contest over the platform, rules, delegate seating, and Bernie’s role at the convention.

Furthermore, assuming Hillary wins the California primary in early June, Bernie, I believe, should graciously concede the nomination to her, while at the same time pledging to join with her and millions of others in a common effort to defeat Trump and the Republicans this fall.

Here’s my reply to Randy:

Randy,

In reply to your comments on my article.

(1) I’m glad that you know what Frederick Douglass would do in today’s circumstances, and not simply in a general sense, but nearly moment to moment as the current campaign unfolds. I have to admire such insight. I can’t think of a historian – and I have read some really good ones – who possess such an acute ability to read the past into the present. Although to be honest, I momentarily doubted your reading of Douglass when you didn’t allow this great abolitionist a hint of concern about the fact that African Americans, other people of color, and women have voted so far in substantial numbers for Hillary, not Bernie.

Or, when you didn’t provide him with some space to raise an eyebrow over the playing down of the significance of the primary results in the South by Bernie and his team or, the fact that Hillary counts a million more votes than Bernie in the primaries so far.

I was also surprised that you didn’t give this political giant of the 19th century a little latitude to wonder about the wisdom of Bernie’s zeal to cut the “Establishment down to size” to the point where the main strategic task of this election – the decisive defeat of Trump and the right wing – becomes a secondary matter at best.

Hopefully, you will give me a little slack for entertaining these thoughts. I’m not sure what came over me. Again my only defense is that I was too quick to assume that the Douglass that you constructed, while correctly noting that Bernie has won several primaries, energized millions of people, brought large numbers of youth into the political process, popularized the struggle against neoliberalism, and made Hillary a better candidate (all of which I agree with), would also be alarmed by the narrowness of Bernie’s voting constituency and his lack of fluency in explaining the dialectic between the struggle against concentrated right wing political power and a full scale assault on neoliberal corporate power.

Moreover, I have to guess, if I can also employ, as you did, the device of reading the past into the present, that Douglass would argue, based on his own experience, that only a broad, diverse, multi-racial, old and young, working class grounded people’s coalition, organized, in the first place, around the necessity of defeating Trump and the rest of the Republicans down the ticket, is the only pathway to win this fall and set the plate for a new burst of freedom, democracy, and anti-corporate people’s power.

(2) Maybe this isn’t fair, but you don’t mention the historical irony that a hesitating centrist – Lincoln – who gets the nod at the Republican convention to the great dismay of the abolitionist movement – goes on to become (in the minds of many) the greatest president in our nation’s history. This should remind us to avoid the construction of political categories that are so tightly wound that they don’t allow individuals space to change under the impact of wider events and new understandings of those same individuals, not to mention the voices and actions of classes, peoples and political movements from below.

Douglass, who was very critical of Lincoln’s hesitation and slowness to act, especially to declare a general emancipation of the slaves, didn’t make this mistake. As Lincoln adjusted his policies due to wartime pressures, anti-slavery agitation and, no less importantly, his own political and moral evolution and his unusual – genius like – capacity to think strategically and broadly, Douglass altered his views of Lincoln accordingly. In fact, by war’s end, he greatly admired Lincoln. I’m not suggesting that Hillary has the same capacity to change, but it is a mistake in my opinion to throw her into a political mold that is frozen shut to the larger political dynamics operating now or in the post election period, in the event that she is elected the next (and first woman) president. Such a posture, among other things, is too rigid and static. If we follow it to its logical conclusion, we are left with, among other things, the implicit, if not conscious, admission that the people’s movement, and the progressive and left forces that are a part of it, are powerless to change what she thinks or does.

(3) Not sure if this fits, but seems to me that the American people, if they are united and purposeful this fall, can come out of the elections positioned to move the politics, economics, and culture of the country in a progressive and left direction, to make major advances. But that will happen only if they/we – all of us on the side of social progress – seize the moment, accent the struggle for unity, and give Trump and the right a big, big drubbing in the voting booth in November.

(4) Every social movement, especially ones with transformative aspirations, needs a self-reflective capacity if it hopes to fulfill its promise. I say this out of my own specific journey in left politics, but I also suspect it has application elsewhere and at the present moment.

Here is Randy’s reaction to my initial post.

I believe that if Frederick Douglass were alive now he would be a Bernie delegate. He wouldn’t be talking about supporting Hillary. The reason is that Hillary has not been nominated. She isn’t the nominee. The “Vote for Hillary to Defeat Trump” was floated a couple times, but now the corporate elite feel that this is the time so its really being pushed.

It interesting how the same idea can be a right wing idea up to July 24th and a left wing idea after July 29th of our time. The political struggle with which Frederick Douglass would be engaged is taking place within the ranks of the Democratic Party. Usually the Nominee has been declared by now. Clinton and the media are putting up a show that its over. But the Nominee has not been declared and it isn’t over.

Instead of a united convention or a convention with a defeated minority feeding at the corporate trough there is a qualitatively different convention. A sizable minority of pledged delegates or, perhaps after CA, a majority of pledged delegates to the Democratic Party Convention will struggle for the Convention to nominate Sanders by conducting a political struggle in the Convention. The Bernie delegates will fight to change the rules to eliminate superdelegates, to add to the Platform Medicare for All, free tuition at public colleges, an infrastructure jobs program, action on climate change; and then nominate a progressive VP.

Saying not a word, but quite aware of this, the Clinton campaign and the Convention Committee of the DNC are excluding Bernie delegates (almost half) from any role in conducting the convention. The Hillary delegates may think things are running just fine, but the DNC’s intention is to shut down any discussion of rules, program, etc. in this convention. The Convention Rules Committee has not one single Bernie Delegate. This is undemocratic and this struggle is a direct confrontation between billionaire political puppet master and an aroused democratic mass.

Frederick Douglas would be with Bernie because Douglass understands that the revolutionary energy, the hope for the future is in the Bernie delegates because they represent the overwhelming majority of voters under 45 years old. Bernie’s campaign is funded by the people. Hillary’s campaign is owned and run by Wall Street;, maybe that wasn’t her choice but it is.

Frederick Douglass would be organizing his fellow Bernie delegates in Maryland to demand that the Maryland State Democratic committee immediately abolish Superdelegates and allot them to the July Convention proportionally. Douglass would be introducing a resolution in the Maryland State Democratic Convention calling on the National Convention to make Medicare for All its number plank in the platform.

After the Convention, if Bernie weren’t elected, Frederick Douglass would be joining his allies in the community and labor to stop Trump. Of course he would vote for the Democrat.

Frederick Douglass was a strong supporter of Seward for the Republican nomination. He supported Lincoln after he was nominated. By supporting the politician that was an abolitionist at the convention Douglass strengthened the ranks of the abolitionists in the Republican Party. The nomination of Lincoln was not a defeat for Douglass even though he supported Seward. It was the opportunity to mobilize enslaved people to rebel and support the Union Army and spur the Republican Party continually further from compromise with slavery.