How the Bernie Sanders insurgency staved off a much bigger threat to the Democratic Party

Don’t worry, Democrats. Bernie Sanders will have helped you in the end.

Welcoming Socialists into the party.
(Image credit: AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

Bernie Sanders is making some Democrats very nervous. He has promised to support a primary challenger to Debbie Wasserman Schultz, head of the Democratic National Committee. (Even the threat has Democrats wondering if they should drop her from that role.) He has said that he will take his fight all the way to Democratic convention, vowing that the coronation in Philadelphia will be "messy." Sanders has already appointed Cornel West, who has called Barack Obama a war criminal, as an advisor to his platform committee. And he still tells his supporters that he can win the nomination.

Knowing that absent the sudden death or arrest of Hillary Clinton a Sanders nomination is nearly impossible, liberals are starting to worry that his campaign is going to damage their nominee. When Clinton wants to run on expanding and continuing the increasingly popular administration of Barack Obama, Sanders is elevating Obama haters. By supporting primary challenges in other races, he is dividing Democratic resources. Or Sanders could get his supporters so energized and aggrieved that they refuse to support Clinton, who, by the way, has won many, many more voters than Sanders has. There is some evidence that Clinton's support among younger voters is dropping precipitously.

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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is the founder and editor of The Slurve, a newsletter about baseball. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, ESPN Magazine, Slate and The American Conservative.