The Democratic Party establishment received a stunning rebuke Thursday when a strong majority of a major progressive volunteer organization rejected its chosen presidential candidate.
The progressive Democracy for America (DFA) is the mirror image on the left of the libertarian Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) on the right. Both have strong beliefs but work to change from within the two major political parties rather than to sit outside with no input.
Some 270,000 DFA members cast ballots in a presidential endorsement vote, and 88 percent went for Bernie Sanders. Establishment candidate Hillary Clinton got only 10 percent.
More revealing is that membership rebelled against Democracy for America founder, former Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean, who had written them urging that DFA endorse Clinton.
This is a crucial vote because it comes from a sizable grassroots sector of the Democratic Party, which party leaders ignore at their own peril.
The DNC subsequently froze the Sanders campaign’s access to its contact lists stored in a central file shared by all Democratic candidates. This prompted a Friday afternoon news conference by a Sanders campaign attorney who alleged that the Democratic National Committee is doing everything it can do as an institution to abet the Clinton campaign to the detriment of another candidates. He threatened to take the DNC to court if the issue is not resolved.
On the other side, the Republican Party establishment has been ignoring or trying to stifle the Republican Liberty Caucus for years. And in many elections, RLC membership has sat out certain campaigns in protest to candidates dictated from the top down.
RLC has yet to endorse and is expected to announce its decision closer to the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary after the first of the year.
The major difference between the two organizations is that the DFA endorsement came from a direct vote of membership with the online polls open for a week. RLC uses a more structured system where the RLC National Board makes a recommendation, and then state chapters have 60 days to hold meetings where members within each state vote.
(Disclosure: I was a national board member from 2011 until I resigned from the GOP last February.)
Democracy for America requires a candidate to receive 67 percent or better in order to win endorsement. Sanders represents the first time a candidate met the DFA minimum threshold.
Republican Liberty Caucus requires a candidate to receive ratification by three-fifths of the state chapters in order to win endorsement. Only twice has a candidate met the threshold: Steve Forbes in 1996 and Ron Paul in 2012.
What these progressive and libertarian intra-party activists demonstrate is the growing divide between artfully crafted politicians who pander to special interests and hold power to conduct business as usual and the grassroots that wants candidates who have core beliefs from which they would govern. Neither Sanders nor Paul can be accused of being panderers to get elected.
Presumably, there are Democrats who can’t veer that far left to support Sanders but are biting their lips that a more mainstream alternative to Clinton didn’t emerge for the nomination. Some will sit out the election; some will concentrate on their local candidates and ignore the national campaign.
Certainly, there are Republicans who can’t veer that far right to support Rand Paul but who are fed up with the party establishment trying to pick a candidate with no regard for the grassroots. Presumably, many are propping Donald Trump in the polls until they can settle on a more acceptable alternative.
The GOP establishment demonstrated its meddlesome micromanagement last week when RNC National Chair Reince Priebus dined with some well-heeled Republican strategists in an effort to figure out how to manipulate a brokered convention. I’ve written before about the existing RNC rules on the national convention which would allow the establishment to block a candidate not to its liking, regardless of the grassroots will.
For both left and right, there is only one option. Activists need to put down the pompoms and get into the trenches. They need to attend the boring caucuses where delegates are elected to conventions.
I have to admit, it’s a thankless task. When a large group of GOP State Committee members quit the Republican Party in disgust in August 2013, I was opposed to them. I urged them to stay in the party and work for change from within to give voice to the grassroots.
On Lincoln’s Birthday this year, I gave them my mea culpa and quit the Republican Party when I saw the futility in trying to stop the steamrolling of those for whom power and control are the only political philosophy they understand.
As more registered Democrats and registered Republican change their voter registration to unenrolled independent, the two major party establishments are going to awaken with dwindling trust. Instead of listening to the populace, they’ll probably complain that the electorate doesn’t deserve what it gets. Remember that when you go to the polls to vote.
Vic Berardelli is a retired political consultant and author of “The Politics Guy Campaign Tips – How to Win a Local Election.” Now an unenrolled independent, he is a former GOP state committeeman and was a member of the Republican Liberty Caucus National Board.