As Nov. 8 creeps closer and closer, supporters of Bernie Sanders are looking back on what could have been if Sanders had earned the Democratic nomination. Many believe that if Hillary Clinton’s email leak had come sooner, prior to the primaries, that Sanders could have stood a chance, The New York Times reports. If he could have won Iowa, or attacked Clinton more strongly on her emails (none of this “enough with the damn emails” stuff) things may have turned out differently.
While most Sanders supporters have moved on to support Clinton’s candidacy, many are more hesitant to do so. Even those that are now offering their support to Clinton suggest that Sanders’ campaign was not taken seriously enough, especially in light of emails leaked from the Democratic National Convention this past summer which seemed to exhibit favoritism for Clinton among DNC leaders. There’s also Clinton’s wealth (the Clinton family net worth is around $110 million), which Clinton said in one of her Wall Street speeches made her “kind of far removed” from her “solid middle-class upbringing.”
Because of this, Sanders supporters fear that she won’t support many of the progressive policies she claims to champion once she is elected. “The people really have to get together and make sure some of these agenda items on the platform become a reality,” Wong told the Times.
For his part, Sanders has refused to speak to any of his own likely frustrations due to the email leaks, and continues to campaign in support of Clinton for the United States’ next president. This doesn’t mean that his supporters should blindly follow his lead, though.
When asked at MSNBC’s Presidential Town Hall what he would do if he didn’t win the nomination, Sanders said, “We are not a movement where I can snap my fingers and say to you or to anybody else what you should do, because you won’t listen to me. You shouldn’t. You’ll make these decisions yourself,” the Observer reported in September. Progressive proponents need to continue pushing the nominee to support what the people believe in, keeping Sanders’ movement alive.
What could have been still can be, but only if we make it happen.