PHILADELPHIA — Even before the Tuesday’s voting that gave Hillary Clinton their party’s nomination, Bernie Sanders delegate Paul Mark and alternate Peter Corbett agreed that Democrats need to unite behind her to best promote the ideals espoused by their candidate.
The two members of a nearly split Massachusetts delegation, seated near the Texas and Hawaii camps in the Wells Fargo Center, echoed what they’d heard from Sanders himself Monday night.
Mark, a state legislator representing portions of Berkshire and Franklin counties, said he hasn’t heard any of the booing or negativity that’s been emphasized in the media, but has felt the “excitement and upbeat mood” at the convention. What he heard, loud and clear, was the Vermont senator’s message that what’s needed is to keep his message going, and that everything his campaign has advanced “is dead if there’s a President Trump, that there’s no way to continue to build that, there’s no piggy-backing. He’s supporting Hillary Clinton, and I think it’s really important that once she’s the nominee, people need to get together. A lot of people, especially there on the floor and have been supporting him, I think they understood. I know I did.”
Although “The place was on fire; it was electric,” he said, people at the convention “were unhappy” learning that there was a bias in the party leadership and were relieved that Debbie Wasserman Shultz was removed as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee and feel justice has been served.
But Corbett, a Sanders alternate from Shutesbury attending his first Democratic convention, said he would like to see more work by party officials to acknowledge how to change the way the primaries were stacked against one candidate who has so much popularity, and also acknowledge the issues that attracted so many Bernie voters.
“They have their agenda. They want to promote an image of unity, and they’re getting angry at us if we don’t,” said Corbett. “The DNC leadership will do what need it to do to make a show of apology, but it doesn’t necessarily mean there will be systemic change. There were things that were flagrant in terms of how a dirty game was played that I believe are fair to be communicated during the convention,” he said of the party’s efforts to scuttle the Sanders campaign. “That doesn’t mean we’re not unified or don’t care about the same issues.”
In the same way, Corbett, a therapist, said, “I find it rather insulting the degree to which the pro-Hillary establishment Democratic team kind of approaches Bernie people now with the idea they expect unity right away” and he would rather see “a little more humble” willingness to hear out the issues that Sanders supporters care about.
Still, Corbett, while also criticizing Clinton’s choice of Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate signaling that she doesn’t care about progressive voters, said he will likely support her in the end.
“We need to make the best choice within the context of the election that’s going to happen Nov. 8 that will help us consolidate the powers we have as a group to promote our issues. And at the same time have her know … personally I’ll do that with big knot in my belly,” and continue to work to “clean up your big big probs. It won’t be because I love Hillary if I vote for her. It will be because I think that’s the best thing for the issues I care about.”
Moving forward, Mark said that with Sanders supporters who have been attracted to politics for the first time because “finally they had a candidate speak their language, saying things they were waiting to hear,” getting them to continue advancing those issues will be key.
“How do you get them to realize the game isn’t over, that we’re at half-time now, we’re still on the same team, we need to get over the hump in November?” he asked. “That’s where the organization we’ve developed over the last few months and the message from Bernie is so important: The movement isn’t dead unless you let it die. If you walk away now and you let Trump and his people run this country, we’re definitely not getting a higher minimum wage, nobody is going to care about the environment, we’re not stopping TPP, we’re not getting equality or social justice. The important message by the end of this week and as we move forward is that we get more and more people united.”
You can reach Richie Davis at:
rdavis@recorder.com
or 413-772-0261, ext. 269