BERNIE’S EVOLUTION
BERNIE SANDERS WANTED TO SIT IN the sun, but not even the sharp California rays on the rooftop deck at a San Diego hotel could brighten his mood. There was still too much at stake, he said, too many lies being told, too many foes with bad motives inside his adopted party. The irascible impatience that has defined Sanders’ entire life—the fury of David against Goliath, of the worker against the owner—was peaking. And still people were telling him to hang it up, get in line and go back to the dairy pastures of Vermont. “They wanted to end this thing before the first ballot was cast. That is totally absurd,” he said. “It is clearly undemocratic. It is a tool for the Establishment to push its candidate forward.”
By Establishment, Sanders means the Democratic Party, a group he joined last year only to become one of its dominant personalities, winning 20 states and territories. By candidate, he means Hillary Clinton, the rival who will almost certainly become the Democratic nominee in Philadelphia in July. And that’s because she has won 3 million more votes than Sanders, because she has won 271 more delegates than he and because nearly 75% of the party elite, who can cast their ballots at the convention for whomever they want, are not only against him but increasingly terrified that his continued defiance will help elect Donald Trump to the presidency.
Squinting in the sunshine, Sanders issued a long list of complaints. “The corporate media is incapable of covering a national campaign in a serious way,” he said, firing a shot at his interrogator.
