Is Bernie Sanders an empty suit?

Many in the Hillary Clinton camp continue to allow their bitterness over the loss to Donald Trump to misdirect their anger at Bernie Sanders. Especially nonsensical is the charge that the Vermonter, despite having been elected and reelected numerous times as mayor, Member of the House and U.S. Senator, is a "failed politician."

Serving in Congress is largely a matter of compromise and influence. To measure Sanders' record you would need to include such factors as his ability to work with the opposition to get things done (to take an example going back to his ealiest days in office, coordinating with the business community to revitalize the lakefront as the socialist mayor of Burlington); his effectiveness in the House; the committee leadership positions he has been trusted with by the Senate Democratic caucus and the fact that the DSCC (led by Sen. Chuck Schumer at the time) protected his reelection to the Senate from challenge by a nominal Democratic opponent; and his founding and chairing of the congressional Progressive Caucus. Most significant -- and most galling to the party establishment -- is that he has helped to move the Democratic Party away from neoliberalism and toward more traditional liberal/progressive policies and proposals.

Inconvenient facts:
Nobody in congress has gotten more amendments passed than Bernie Sanders. Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, breaks it down.

Fight!

Republican Tommy Pope is favored over Democrat Archie Parnell in SC's 5th District next month. That contest is unlikely to see the same magnitude of investment from national parties and superpacs currently flooding the special elections in Georgia and Montana. Apparently, it will be more like the Kansas race that was narrowly lost because of the national Democrats' disinterest.

So much for the "50 States" strategy.

If the Democrats are serious about winning in 2018 and 2020, they will need to treat every contest seriously, not least because a losing race can lay the foundation for a win later and can influence outcomes in neighboring districts and in contests further up the political food chain, such as governor and senator. The Working Families Party, Greens, independents, et al might want to look at whether the Democrats' strategy of giving up various congressional districts and senate seats without a fight is an opportunity.

Yelling at buildings is not enough

The resistance is gratifying and fun and maybe consciousness-raising, but real change will come from an aggressive and eventually victorious opposition.

In the fight over the omnibus spending bill, the Democrats didn't do too badly: no funding for the border wall; no penalty for sanctuary cities; no rollback of environmental programs; no gutting of consumer financial protections; plus funding for ACA subsidies, Planned Parenthood, miners’ health benefits, and Medicaid payments for Puerto Rico.

But both the reactionaries now in power and the neoliberals they replaced must be overcome in 2018 and 2020 if the republic is to be set back on the road toward economic and social justice from which it was deflected 40 years or so ago. It will do us no good to go back to the politics and policies that made the reactionaries' victory possible -- inevitable -- in the first place.

Comprehensive Government Funding Bill Released (U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations).