Peter Welch gets it.

Apparently, House Democrats actually booed Bernie Sanders today when he didn’t commit to a speedy endorsement of Hillary Clinton, which comes as no surprise to his steadfast supporters.

The notable exception to this establishment fit of pique was Vermont’s own Congressman Peter Welch, a bold Bernie endorser, who today  restated Sanders’ own message, that this is not just about winning a single election:

A lot of members are anxious about when is he going to explicitly support Hillary,” said Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.). “And what he’s saying is that’s an ongoing process. But if we want to win, we’ve got to take the long view that we need a platform that is going to genuinely create excitement for our nominee…What he said very clearly is we’ve got to beat Trump, and the way he believes we’re going to do it is by having a commitment to an agenda that excites people, including the younger people. And he’s working on that.”

Exactly.

Party stalwarts who seek to extinguish the Bernie phenomena, do so at their own risk. The vast crowds that turned out to hear Bernie on the campaign trail are building on a movement that first brought its aspirations to support Barack Obama; then, frustrated by glacial progress, evolved into Occupy Wall Street.

If their demands are callously exploited and swept aside once again for short-term political considerations, the Democratic party will have squandered an entire generation of support.

What better time to move forward with commonsense progressive agenda items that reflect the values of our increasingly diverse youth population, than when the Republican nominee is the most unpopular, even repellant candidate in recent history?

It’s now, or, quite possibly, never.

About Sue Prent

Artist/Writer/Activist living in St. Albans, Vermont with my husband since 1983. I was born in Chicago; moved to Montreal in 1969; lived there and in Berlin, W. Germany until we finally settled in St. Albans.

2 thoughts on “Peter Welch gets it.

  1. By Endorsing Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders May Have Positioned Himself to Win The Presidency
    https://medium.com/@Starkweather/by-endorsing-hillary-bernie-may-have-positioned-himself-to-win-the-presidency-e4ed85dffdf1#.otrugcsdb
    Still have bouts of airheaded naivette but this looks pretty real, and, foundation is a separate FBI investigation, but had to make sure it’s not Apr 1:
    Thursday, July 14, 2016
    Exclusive…The most outrageous Clinton scandal Is about to hit the fan
    http://noisyroom.net/blog/2016/07/13/exclusivethe-most-outrageous-clinton-scandal-is-about-to-hit-the-fan/
    Author sez:
    “a modern version of Tammany Hall only it’s on a global scale”

    Shillarys negatives are or have been as high as Drumpfs. Difficult to pinpoint b/c an ever-shifting fluid target depending on who badly efs up the worst on a given day or week.

    Pluuus where she was ahead by as many as double-digits of 10 or more points, following email-gate puzzlingly twilight-zoned, numbers are falling fast with even Dems believing there should have been more of a penalty for even the least of what she pulled.

    Have always believed both candidates equally untenable. Personally plan to vote maryjane edibles company owner L – Johnson-Weld.

    Still talk of a convention coup, primarily b/c Trump also not doing well & turning off everyone *again*, has own class-action going on, won’t release tax returns, party shaking in boots b/c IRS released Romney’s returns & could do the same with Trump.

    Another pants-on-fire with disclosure he doesn’t even have access to entry-level $1 billion needed with own cash of say $333 million & ability to raise equal matching funds, as donor class has unanimously rejected him & the likes of supporter Adelson doesn’t trust him either. Trump could quickly drain RNC coffers so they don’t want to match funds b/c they need to pour it on congressional contenders primarily due to Trump fallout. And all of above fear he would use any donations to pay back $250 million he loaned his primary run.

    Has enriched himself & kids by using Trump properties for venues & spreading all campaign donations amongst clan of little clones, another reason for distrust.

    Bunch of train-wrecks on the horizon in crystal ball.

  2. Above story linked from a local-to-Springfield area site:
    http://springfieldvt.blogspot.com/2016/07/many-sanders-supporters-feeling-berned.html

    All of above stories from previous post combined including this present a convincing path forward & possible ray of hope for Sanders’ supporters. Thought the links included in previous post had this but unless missing something don’t think they do, but was the bigger story imho:
    Jill Stein offered to step aside for Bernie Sanders to lead Green Party presidential run

    The Green Party, which is expected to select Jill Stein at its presidential nominating convention in August, advocates aggressive environmental policies, social justice, grassroots democracy and other progressive priorities. Like the Libertarian Party on the right, Green Party leaders see an opportunity to break into the big time in this election. Both Clinton and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have historically high “unfavorable” ratings for major-party candidates.

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