The Clinton loyalists who recently turned a deaf ear to Donna Brazile's revelations regarding the DNC's separate and largely secret deal with the Clinton campaign which benefited from extra political control and influence in the 2016 primary are emblematic the Democratic establishment's presumptive claim to Party dominance. The implicit assumption here is that the Sanders' candidacy (then and now) somehow represent an intrusion into political ground held and controlled by Clinton/Obama traditionalists and therefore was properly regarded as interlopers in an otherwise closed political circle. What establishment Democrats tragically failed to realize was that instead of being Party crashers, the millions of Sanders supporters were inviting the Democratic Party to participate in a transformative process by which it's burgeoning majority could be heard to signal a new direction into a more hopeful and successful future. While it is true that progressives such as Keith Ellison and Cornell West were instrumental in placing forward thinking elements to the Party Platform, it is also the case that Party leaders and their operatives were actively seeking to undermine the Sanders campaign throughout the primary season. Of special irony is the fact that Brazile, a long-time Democratic centrist leader, had to resign her post as temporary chair of the DNC amid revelations regarding her role in the advance prompting of candidate Clinton prior to a primary debate with Sanders, a charge she now oddly disputes.
As the Democratic Party looks upon the political landscape ahead, it will be well advised to heed the hard lessons of the previous campaign and seek to embrace its emerging progressive base as the real voice of a viable and hopeful alternative to the national embarrassment currently occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Failure to do so threatens to condemn the Democrats to the unpardonable offense of repeating the miscalculations of its most recent history.
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