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I have lately been reminding myself that, if you have an unrealistic view of circumstances, then the decisions you make based on those circumstances will have a high probability of also being unrealistic. I was once told that we encounter only two situations in our lives- the ways things are and the way we think or feel they ought to be. So, it follows that, to obtain the latter, you need to have clear-eyed (and clear-headed) view of the former.

Which brings me to the spectacle of the Bernie Sanders supporters’ behavior at the Democratic National Convention. I am going to put aside (for now) the hypothesis I presented in prior postings about the unraveling of the two-major parties. What does interest me, however, is political pragmatism- accepting the reality of the way things are, and making subsequent choices that are realistic.

Reality: consider the facts: Hillary Clinton had a 17% margin over Sanders in delegates won; that margin increases to 33% when the superdelegates are added in. The Democratic Party, just like the Republicans and other parties, is not a public organization. It is a  private club that makes its own rules. The Democrats created superdelegates so that the Party establishment would have the means to check insurgent or outsider candidates. Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat, so it is unrealistic to believe that Party insiders would throw their support behind him rather than Hillary Clinton, the long-time Democrat. [As an aside, I am certain the Republican establishment wishes it had had a superdelegate mechanism to derail the Trump campaign.] Given that three-and-a-quarter million more primary voters cast their ballots for Hillary over Bernie, the reality was that Senator Sanders was not going to be nominated at the National Convention.

Fantasy: It seemed evident that many in the Sanders contingent arrived in Philadelphia last weekend with the unrealistic idea that a sufficient number of the superdelegates would be persuaded to change their votes and give Bernie the nomination. The hard-core Sandernistas never accepted reality and carried on all week like petulant children, booing and chanting and, in one instance, walking out of the convention. Their anger at the Democratic establishment was intensified by the WikiLeaks release of DNC emails which included a number of exchanges in which DNC staffers discussed ways of damaging the Sanders campaign. [If there is ever a leak of Republican National Committee  documents, would it not be likely that we would see similar exchanges among RNC staffers discussing Trump?] This kerfuffle confirmed their suspicions, incited by Sanders’ own complaints during the primary campaign, that the  DNC was working to defeat Sanders and that Chairperson Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was the main culprit. After spending months calling for her resignation, they were not mollified when Wasserman-Schultz fell on her sword and resigned before the opening of the convention. While some described their behavior as disrespectful, it was more a display of immaturity bordering on outright childishness. Were they persuading anyone? Were they building a consensus? Or were they simply holding their breath and waiting to turn blue?

Reality: The Sanders campaign, given less than a 5% chance of winning the nomination a year ago, was a remarkable success. In winning 45% of the votes cast, they pressured Hillary Clinton and the Democratic establishment into moving in a more progressive direction. And they were tangibly rewarded by having much of their progressive program incorporated into the Party platform.

The American government was designed from its inception to be changed slowly and incrementally. It follows that our politics feed into that: Working through existing institutions- even as we work to change those same institutions- takes time and perseverance. Party establishments do not easily relinquish their power. [The Trump capture of the GOP is more a case of miscalculation and mismanagement on the part of that Party’s establishment than of an incremental infiltration by Trumpism.] In this light, it might be argued that the Sanders campaign was more successful in reshaping our politics than the most of third-party movements in our history. Certainly, its impact far exceeds that of today’s Libertarians and the Greens. The Senator and his supporters should be proud of what they achieved.

Reality: More people under age 30 voted for Bernie Sanders than Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump combined.* The millennial generation is now the largest demographic and they are poised to play a major role in the direction of American politics in the future. It is time for them to mature, to develop patience and to approach politics and public policy by making pragmatic choices. Otto von Bismarck described politics as “the art of the possible, the attainable- the art of the next best.” That is the next lesson for this group to learn.

Senator Sanders himself was quite clear about this when he appeared on “Real Time with Bill Maher” Friday:

“We must continue the political revolution. We must continue to bring millions of people into the political process to stand up, to take on the billionaire class, to fight for economic and social and racial and environmental justice. And that fight must continue the day after the election because fundamental changes, transformation changes, take time to happen. They don’t happen overnight and that movement has got to continue… (We are) converting our movement… to a movement that tries to activate the American people and get young people to start running for office, for school board and city council and state legislature.”

Protests are a great tool for raising awareness, for bringing light to bear on an issue. But getting things done- attaining tangible goals- requires patience and hard work.

You know, maturity.

*http://wapa.st/28JJ1h1