Divided They Fall: Convention Reveals Fractured Democratic Party

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. In fact, it was supposed to be just the opposite. All the controversy was supposed to be in Cleveland, where Republicans finally made it official and nominated Donald Trump for president. Hispanic protesters were supposed to make a huge scene outside the arena. My God, none of the Bush family even came to the convention! Madness!

But it didn’t work out that way. While there was some tension among the delegates in Cleveland, the protests were mild compared to what we saw earlier in the year outside Trump rallies. And, save for Ted Cruz’s defiant snub on Wednesday, the Republican National Convention mostly went off without a hitch. Trump was nominated, the party rallied around him, and everything was just fine.

On the other side, though, all hell was breaking loose.

As the DNC began turning the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia into a television-ready venue for their crowned champion, WikiLeaks published 20,000 internal emails that sparked outrage amongst the supporters of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. These emails proved what Sanders and his fans have said all along: That the Democratic National Committee favored a Clinton victory in the primaries.

On Monday, it was already clear that Clinton knew there was trouble brewing. She moved Sanders into a prime-time speaking slot, arranged for progressive hero Elizabeth “Don’t Call Me Pocahontas” Warren to give a speech, and pressured DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz to step down.

If these steps were meant to appease the disenfranchised, they did not appear to work.

If anything, it seems that Bernie’s liberal fans will be quicker to turn on him than they will to follow his new directive and vote for Hillary Clinton in the fall.

“We have got to defeat Donald Trump, and we have got to elect Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine,” Sanders told a gathering of his delegates at a lunchtime meeting.

They booed the idea in unison.

And, really, who can blame them? Why would they vote for Hillary? Even if the email stuff hadn’t landed, why would they turn around and support someone who stands for everything they despise about Washington politics? Bernie has been telling them for six months that Hillary is corrupt; now they’re supposed to get excited about her presidency? There’s simply no logic to that beyond “Durr, Trump is worse.” Which, even for a liberal, must be a tough pill to swallow.

This was supposed to be a unifying week for the Democrats. Instead, the fractures are growing worse by the day.