It should come as no surprise that, in Washington State, Bernie Sanders enjoys a quite a large following. In fact, our state has the largest number of donors – per capita – to the Sanders campaign.
So, just what about Sanders is so attractive to the far-Left activists in our state?
One campaign volunteer told MyNorthwest.com, “Bernie has been Independent … for the past 20 years… He’s really just been an issues-based person. So Independents see that they have a candidate.”
That’s an interesting choice of words, a clever way to avoid the truth. We imagine that describing Sanders as “Independent” plays better among voters outside of Seattle than describing him as what he calls himself: a socialist.
When Sanders first announced his candidacy, the Washington State Democrat Party sent an email to its supporters expressing excitement over the prospect. Of course, the party eagerly described Sanders as a “Democrat.”
The efforts to label Sanders as “Independent” or “Democrat” by his supporters reveal a lot about the future of the Democrat Party. Time and time again, Sanders has insisted that he is, first and foremost, a Socialist. So, what’s going on? Why not (other than the obvious PR reason) just call Sanders what he calls himself?
A comment made by a Sanders supporter from Seattle offers an explanation. The supporter told MyNorthwest.com that, even if Clinton gets the nomination, he’s “thrilled to see her moving more to issues espoused by Sanders.”
Perhaps the rather sad reality is that Democrats who insist on labeling Sanders as a Democrat are not necessarily wrong. The Democrat party is moving further and further to the left, leaving little-to-no difference between what is means to be a Democrat versus what it means to be a Socialist.
We’ve had a first-hand look at the disturbing trend in Seattle (thank you, Kshama Sawant). So, perhaps it isn’t so far off to use the two terms interchangeably (as, apparently, Washington Democrats are so happy to do themselves).
