Democrats will unite -- not to worry

Matthew Yglesias, writing on Vox's "Policy and Politics" blog, told us not to worry about the tension between Clinton and Sanders supporters, and between the candidates themselves.  In view of some Democratic campaigns in the past, this is trivial compared, say, to the Bill Clinton and Jerry Brown 1992 debate.

Brown accused Clinton of "corruption" and "conflict of interest that is incompatible with the kind of public servant we expect for president of the United States."  Despite such harsh rehetorical exchanges, there was no problem uniting the party, and Brown gave his support to Clinton, who easily carried Brown's state.  Ygelsias writes: 

"The current race feels very vibrant right now to those who are emotionally and intellectually invested in the outcome, but by the standards of past campaigns, this Democratic primary season has been a remarkably bloodless affair with very little in the way of personal attacks or viciousness.

"On the Democratic side, this has been a year of substantive fights about important policy issues with both candidates fundamentally approaching the answers from the left relative to the status quo. The differences between Clinton and Sanders are real and important, but they amount to an argument about whether to try to shift the country a little bit to the left or a lot to the left. Under the circumstances, it would be very odd for it to produce a lasting, unbridgeable divide if earlier elections have not."

It is partly a function of the fact that the differences between them are relatively small, so that by this time in the campaign there really is nothing new to say.  Both of them are running to the left of the status quo, so that what Yglesias calls "heavy consumers of internet news" are focusing on the small issues that divide them rather than the wide gulf between them and the Republicans.

Yglesias concludes:  "Sanders's run against [Clinton] has been overwhelmingly focused on the issues. And whatever you think of Clinton's stances on taxes, Wall Street regulation, subsidizing college tuition, or expanding public sector health programs, there's absolutely no doubt that she and Sanders are pulling in the same direction while all Republicans are pulling the other way. There . . . [are no ] corruption charges or allegations of secret adherence to Islam that transcend or disrupt the basic left-right partisan framework — just a simple, sincerely felt disagreement about how expansive an agenda it makes sense to run on."

Since Yglesias published this article, word is now out from the Democratic National Committee that the number of Sanders delegates on the Platform Committee will be increased, which is one of the things he seemingly has been asking for.   There are other reforms of the primary process, how delegates are selected, plus policy issues, that Sanders is hoping to have influence upon.

But, as of now, it's beginning to look like it will all work out well in the end.

Ralph