This morning’s press conference for the Delegates for Bernie didn’t give much clue whether Tim Kaine will face boos, walkouts, folded arms or some other form of protest tonight. But it’s safe to say that if Debbie Wasserman Shultz and Hillary Clinton are the Bernie delegates’ two least favorite Democrats, Kaine is among their top five least favorites.
Karen Bernal, a Bernie Sanders delegate from California, said she and the other delegates are “not willing to be extras in a scripted production.”
Asked whether there was anything Kaine could say to win her over, she said she wanted Kaine to renounce a 2007 statement that those advocating protectionism have a “loser’s mentality.”
Normon Solomon, national coordinator of the Bernie Delegates Network, pointed out that the TPP trade deal was the preeminent issue in a survey of Sanders delegates. He said that he and his group represented a “canary in the coal mine” for the Clinton campaign as they prepare to face Trump in the general election.
Morning Jolt reader Greg pointed out that a lot of the Left’s hardcore activists are realizing they’ve been used as props for a long time, and are refusing to quietlly recede into the background:
For eight Bush years, the Democrats and their media allies gave these people the spotlight, used their protests for political leverage, and rarely if ever reported the truly weird fringe, only that there’s lots and lots of people who are really angry. Lather, rinse and repeat for eight Obama years. So, for the last 15 or so years, Democratic leaders and sympathetic media have bilked these people for every political advantage possible. And, now that they’re no longer convenient, they’re being deposited back to the fringe.
Except, these people aren’t conditioned anymore to being fringe; the “Year of the Protester” people may have actually believed they were influential in party politics. As this realization kicks in that they were only ever political pawns, they’re pretty upset. So, they’re trying to do what got them here: outlandish protests. Except the same antics that won them applause and super-duper serious reflection, are now being ignored. And spectacularly so. They have a right to be ticked, but they should have seen it coming.