Let us now praise Bernie Sanders

Tuesday, Hillary Clinton made history.   Her margin of victory in both the New Jersey and California primaries was bigger than expected, especially in California.   She rightfully has won a majority of the pledged delegates -- even without any superdelegates -- and thus should rightfully be considered the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party.

But this campaign has also been a remarkable achievement for Sen. Bernie Sanders who confounded all expectations when he entered the race last summer.   Perhaps the starkest negative prediction came from Republican columnist William Krystol when he said that "Kim Kardashian has a better chance of becoming president than Bernie Sanders."

Bernie Sanders not only changed the tenor of the campaign and pulled Hillary Clinton to more progressive positions, he excited the passion of millions of people, especially young people, for changing our country.    He convinced them and many from my generation as well that we do not have to just accept the corrupting effect of money in politics or to be paralyzed into inaction because "they" have all the power.

Bernie didn't win -- but he gave the Democratic establishment a run for its money.   And he did it in something akin to the old line from Ginger Rogers, who claimed that she "did everything that Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in high heels."

Bernie Sanders brought in his crowds, got out the vote, and won close to half of the states and a sizable portion of the delegates -- without taking a dollar of corporate money or having a superpac to raise money for him.

He did more than that.   He earned the right to have a say in the party platform (in fact they let him name 1/3 of the delegates to the platform committee).   He earned a right to argue for changing some of the primary rules with regard to delegate selection.  And he earned the right to an important speaking spot at the convention.

More than all that, Sanders will return to the Senate with enhanced respect and political clout.   He can become a legislative leader for  shepherding legislation through -- if only President Clinton chooses to reach out to him and the Senate leadership recognizes what he can bring.  It's looking now that Trump's toxic effect downballot may give Democrats back control of the Senate and greatly enhanced power in the House.    Senator Warren, if she isn't picked to be Clinton's running mate, will double that progressive strength. 

Hillary Clinton made history -- and will continue to make history, as the first woman nominee of a major party and the first woman president.   Bernie Sanders made history with his grassroots campaign of ideas and optimism and with his demonstration that you can run a well-funded campaign with crowd-funding, without corporate and superpac money.   Let us thank him and honor him as he now helps unite the a more progressive party to win in November.

Ralph