With all the vitriol running through the Bernie camp here for the DNC and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, it seems some might need to be reminded that Bernie Sanders probably would not be here without the support he’s had from the DNC and party stalwarts since the 1990’s.
Between 1981 and 1988, it is true, Sanders “presented himself to the left outside of Vermont as the leader of the third party movement, vanquishing the two major parties in every Mayoral election.”But in 1988, Sanders got a lesson on the perils of third party politics when he ran for federal office. In the election for Vermont’s seat in the House of Representatives, the independent Sanders and Democrat Paul Poirer divided the majority vote and the contest went to a Republican. Sanders responded by drifting right and cutting a deal with the Vermont Democrats: the party would permit no serious candidate to run against him while he blocked serious third party formation in Vermont and adopted positions in line with the national corporate war Democrats.
In 1990, Sanders was challenged by an unauthorized Democrat, an African American by the name of Dolores Sandoval. The DNC refused to support her candidacy, and according to one source, Bernie won by running to her right on the build up in the Gulf and decriminalizing drugs:
The unauthorized Democratic candidate in 1990, Delores Sandoval, an African American faculty member at the University of Vermont, was amazed that the official party treated her as a nonperson and Bernie kept outflanking her to her right. She opposed the Gulf build-up, Bernie supported it. She supported decriminalization of drug use and Bernie defended the war on drugs, and so on.....
In 1991, Democrats welcomed Sanders into the Democratic House caucus, in return for his vote on Democratic bills. Throughout the 1990’s, his votes for military interventions in countries like Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Liberia, etc. cemented his relationship with Democrats even further. He endorsed Bill Clinton for president in 1992 and 1996, and campaigned for him in Vermont.
In 2005, when he wanted to move to the Senate, he was endorsed by the Chairman of the DSCC, Chuck Schumer, which was a de facto endorsement of the party’s chosen candidate for Senate. In exchange for his votes on all procedural bills, Sanders gets committee chairmanships and seniority privileges befitting a member of the party. He can vote any way he wants on policy bills, but votes with Democrats 95% of the time.
Bernie knows how much he is helped by the Democratic party. It’s why he’s pledged not to attack Hillary, and why he took a pledge to help raise money for the DNC last November.
Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign has signed a joint fundraising agreement with the Democratic National Committee, the DNC confirmed to POLITICO.
The move, which comes more than two months after Hillary Clinton's campaign signed such an agreement in August, will allow Sanders' team to raise up to $33,400 for the committee as well as $2,700 for the campaign from individual donors at events.
Read more: www.politico.com/...
So remember that the next time you start denigrating the DNC and the rest of the party- if Bernie should win and move on to general election, the money that the DNC and Hillary are raising right now for state parties will be there to help him too.