Feeling the Brand

Granted that you have take anything you read in Politico with a grain of salt, but this little trial balloon sounds plausible enough if you happen to suspect that the Bernie Sanders campaign has already embarked on the first leg of its road to Clinton capitulation:

 A group of Bernie Sanders staffers and volunteers is circulating a draft proposal calling on the senator to get out of the presidential race after the final burst of Democratic primaries on June 7, and concentrate on building a national progressive organization to stop Donald Trump.

Operating under the assumption that Sanders will win the California primary but still fall far short of amassing enough delegates to claim the Democratic nomination, the document calls for the Vermont senator to exit the race and launch an independent political group far larger than any other recent post-campaign political operations, such as those started by Howard Dean or Barack Obama.

The main purpose of the so-called Revolution '16 movement would be to "mobilize voters under 30" to show up for down-ticket progressive candidates as well as for Hillary Clinton. The draft proposal also suggests holding a separate convention event for Sanders supporters to supplement his speech at the official (and closed to the general public) Democratic convention. Nothing like a party to soothe the feelings -- and the consciences -- of the uninvited and the disenfranchised!

If the group at first focused primarily on combating Trump, the thinking goes, it would provide those Sanders fans with justification for eventually voting for Clinton.

 “This is a populist year in American electoral politics with signs that it may mark the beginning of a populist era. It would be very unwise for the decidedly un-populist Hillary Clinton to move with too much confidence towards a full-on confrontation with Donald Trump,” they continue. “A Sanders-led (as opposed to Sanders-centered) independent entity could provide a much needed, articulate and energized economic populist voice to the anti-Trump effort without the intrinsic compromising effect posed by close association with Neoliberal Democratic elites, as well as weaning the volunteer base off total reliance on individual candidates during one-off election cycles.”

Of course, this is only a trial balloon coming from anonymous sources "close to and within the Sanders campaign". Bernie Sanders's hands are still clean. He will have the final say, depending on whether his "fans" are actually willing to pay the toll for this bridge too far. There's no immediate pressure for the candidate himself to don the full herding costume. The campaign has already sent out its pack of media cattle dogs to do the teasing preliminaries.

Meanwhile, that giant lasso is coming closer and closer, making the thundering herd a tad skittish.

 So in order to bewilder them and head off a threatened mass stampede for the exits, the humane neoliberal factory farmers will build a spanking-new shiny customized slaughterhouse large enough to hold millions of enthusiastic voters. And there will be plenty of cud to chew and lots of togetherness to keep the herd placid and compliant and anesthetized as the Hillary brand is seared slowly into their backsides.

So... what'll it be, proles? This:

Or this?