To Preserve the Republic, Bernie Must Win

No this isn't ironic and no it doesn't mean I think he'd win against Trump in the general election, but hear me out: I really think that for the good of the Republic, Bernie Sanders must win the Democratic nomination.

If you will indulge me, I wish to tell you a story from over 2,000 years ago.

A child named Cato refused to follow the political advice of his seniors and contemporaries. They considered him a radical and a threat to their power. After a political disagreement with an adult at around the age of four, he was held out of a window and shaken, ordered to agree, but he continued to stand firm in his position despite the threat that his opinion of his foe posed to his life. After a while, the anger subsided, and the adult threatening him remarked "What a piece of good fortune it is for Italy that he is a boy; for if he were a man, I do not think we could get a single vote among the people." In early adulthood, Plutarch tells us that: "He would often go out into the streets after breakfast without shoes or tunic. He was not hunting for notoriety by this strange practice, but accustoming himself to be ashamed only of what was really shameful, and to ignore men's low opinion of other things." (1)

In adulthood, Cato was politically active. He ran for the position of Praetor in 56 B.C.E, but the political establishment, who we know today had created the basis of their power in back-room deals with other elites instead of appealing to the people, were so afraid of him that they killed and injured his supporters. In spite of this he still won the first round of voting, so the establishment was forced to take more direct action and declare his candidacy against the will of the gods, send out their paid assassins for a second round of intimidation and murder, and only then did they "win" the election. (2)

By all accounts, even those of his enemies, Cato was a man of principles. Even though the political insiders of the time believed that he was a threat to them and their politics, they had nothing they could hold against him in the eyes of the people. All they could do was sabotage his campaign by hook or by crook.

But this violence against the very concept of the Roman Republic, against the idea of Rome's democracy, was not without consequence. Sure, the Triumvirate had won in 56 B.C.E, but that was not the end of civil unrest. The next year, every single candidate for political office was found to have offered them bribes in an attempt to repeat their anti-democratic success. Within five years, the ambitions of the men responsible for the Triumvirate would become so great that their egos would clash, driving the entire Senate into factionalism and gridlock. Having already openly spurned democracy as a way to mediate their disputes, the only answer left was civil war. Within a decade, over 100,000 men--about a fifth or a sixth of the entire adult male population of the country--would be dead. An equivalent percentage of the modern adult male population of the United States would be 30 million.

I bring this up because whether or not you agree with Bernie Sanders, he has a lot in common with Cato. He has had consistent views on politics his entire life, even spending time on a commune during the darkest days of the Cold War. He has consistently stood by his principles--current wealth notwithstanding.

And most importantly, he was sabotaged out of a position he rightfully won by a political system that feared him more than they loved democracy. What happened in 2016 was shameful.

The Republic is now at a precipice. We have only a few routes left to us to prevent civil war. If the Democrats, an entire political party that at least on paper represents nearly half of American voters, can be allowed to spit in the face of democracy, if it is allowed to continue to march bullheadedly in the direction of oligarchy, then the Republic will fall.

For the good of the Republic, I believe that one of two paths must be taken:

1) The Democrats weed out corruption and pledge themselves to democracy. It is obvious that they stole the crucial first caucus of Iowa from Bernie Sanders: they clearly didn't get the results they wanted so they "lost" votes overnight until they did. It's also obvious that the establishment has decided to back Biden and intend to steal the election, probably with similar results as to 2016. The Democrats must prove that they have learned their lesson from 2016 by not interfering in the campaign of Bernie Sanders and not rigging the results for anyone else at Sanders' expense.

OR:

2) In the event that the Democratic party does not do so, the American people must strip them of every political office. They must never be allowed to win again. If we can't trust them to respect the process of democracy when dealing with their own supporters, their most dedicated voters, how can we entrust them with the country? If they will openly and fragrantly make new rules as they go along, there is no reason to believe that any Triumvirate--any secret cabal--they form will last longer or have more beneficial results than that of Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey. I know that many Democrats would never vote for a Republican, and I'm not asking you to. Vote third party. For my part, I plan to vote Libertarian. I voted third party in the last election knowing perfectly well that Hillary Clinton could not win without the vote of young queer women of color like me. My family came here because they believed in democracy. My family came here because they didn't want to live in a repressive state where they had no right to appeal, no justice, and no representation.

For the good of the Republic, either the Democrats must clean their house, as evidenced by Bernie winning the nomination, or no Democrat can ever again be voted into office. This isn't about the election of 2020. This is about 2024. This is about 2028. This is about the future.

To be clear, I don't believe a third party will win the election in 2020 against Trump, and that's not my goal. My goal is to strip Democrats of every other seat until and unless they prove they can be trusted with power. No position of power can be voted over to them as long as they will ignore your vote.

For the good of the Republic: until the party has shown us evidence that the corruption is purged, no Democrat must sit on your city council, no Democrat must sit on your county board, no Democrat must sit in your state legislature, no Democrat must sit in the Congress or Senate. This isn't about who gets the job of president. This is about who holds the future of the nation. It must be the voters. If the oligarchs of one party do not agree, they must not be given the power to change the laws until we have no right to vote.

"The victorious cause pleased the gods, but the vanquished cause pleased Cato."

1) http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Cato_Minor*.html 2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLK4vt1j_hk