Democrats fear Bernie Sanders' supporters won't back Hillary Clinton if she wins nomination
Sen. Bernard Sanders’ call for a political revolution has resonated with a growing segment of Democratic voters who are committed to his message — but who, party leaders fear, will walk if he’s not the eventual presidential nominee.
Some of those voters tell pollsters they doubt they could support Hillary Clinton, Mr. Sanders’ chief competition for the party’s nod, saying she’s part of the very establishment the maverick Vermont senator is fighting against. Other Democrats say Mrs. Clinton would only earn their grudging support, leaving the party fearful of a catastrophic split.
“I think you have two distinct camps,” said John Colombo, the Democratic Party chairman in Franklin County, Iowa. “The newcomers, or the people who caucus infrequently, and then the party loyal folks, who are always at the central meetings, and there are a lot of Clinton supporters in there. The new people who are getting motivated seem to be Bernie supporters. They seem to be jazzed about the process, and really want to show up and get involved.
“What worries me is we’re drawing these new people into the party as a result of Bernie, and we want to keep them engaged,” Mr. Colombo said. “If they feel like the party’s done them wrong, or if Bernie loses and they feel the party’s done him wrong, then they won’t get on board with Hillary.”
Many of those Sanders voters are already primed by what they see as slights by the Democratic establishment, including a limited number of debates and a nasty dispute over access to party voter files.
And they question whether Mrs. Clinton can carry the message of Mr. Sanders, who has cast his campaign as a call for voters to overturn the political order and push back against business and political elites he says are stiffing the vast majority of Americans.
“Nothing real will get [done] unless we have a political revolution where millions of people finally stand up,” Mr. Sanders said at the fourth Democratic presidential debate held in South Carolina on Sunday.
Jamie Miller, a computer science engineer in Saint Jacob, Illinois, saw Mr. Sanders’ Sunday night performance as a rallying cry, and plans to support the senator in his efforts to bring forth a revolution and bring down the establishment — which includes Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
“People like me support Bernie; corporations like Exxon support Mrs. Clinton,” Mr. Miller said after the debate. “Everything Bernie says is right in line with my views. I like his take on big business and getting money out of politics to get the middle class back on track.”
Mr. Miller, who says he’s an independent, opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade agreement that he says benefits only the 1 percent and, because of which, “guys like me are going to take it in the shorts.” He didn’t vote in the last presidential cycle but did support Mr. Obama in 2008. And if Mr. Sanders loses the Democratic nomination, he vows not to vote for Mrs. Clinton, either abstaining again or considering whoever the Republican nominee is.
Mr. Miller’s the type of voter the Democratic establishment fears and the type of voter Mr. Sanders is attracting in droves.
“I think Bernie Sanders’ economic inequality message is resonating not just with traditional Democratic voters, but with younger voters and with people who are not regularly active in the Democratic Party, independents and others,” said David Allen, a Democratic Party leader in Barnstead, New Hampshire.
The most recent CBS/New York Times poll found less than half of Democratic primary voters nationwide say they would enthusiastically support Mrs. Clinton if she were their nominee. Fourteen percent would not support her in a general election, 27 percent would support her with “some reservations,” and 11 percent said they would “only back her because she is the nominee.”
Bill Packer, a retired veteran from Wyoming, Michigan, is among that 14 percent who would refuse to vote for Mrs. Clinton.
“I support Bernie, it’s a no-brainer,” Mr. Packer explained. “He has been consistent over his entire political career [for] what he stands for, and that’s exactly the same items I have stood for in my own life. It’s an absolute right, not a privilege, to have health care. And to get money out of politics. Money is really the cause of all of our dilemmas right now. If you look at Wall Street and how the 1 percent gains and everybody else loses, that’s a wrong system. Our capitalist system is broken.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jan/19/democrats-fear-bernie-sanders-supporters-wont-back/
