How the DNC Screwed Bernie in 2016

A common misconception

Some things become accepted conventional wisdom even if they’re not strictly true. I think liberals like me are quick to find the holes in right-wing talking points about the things that Trump clings to like the “Deep State” but we’re slow to find the holes in our own stories. Here’s one: the myth that the DNC screwed Bernie in 2016.

You can read this 2016 article from the Washington Post titled Here Are the Most Damaging Things in the DNC’s Leaked Emails, so you don’t need to take my word for it. But here’s the summary of the eight biggest scandals.

1. One guy wondered aloud if they should target Bernie’s religion. It was shot down.
2. Sanders’ campaign said Wasserman Schultz sucked in Nevada and she responded “damn liar” and “Particularly scummy that he barely acknowledges the violent and threatening behavior that occurred.”
3. Sanders’ campaign said Wasserman Schultz was mean to him, and she said he wasn’t even a Democrat. (which is true)
4. Sanders’ campaign attacks the DNC for rigging the process and Clinton’s lawyer explains how to respond, saying there’s a precedent.
5. By late May, the Democratic primaries are basically done. Sanders couldn’t catch up, but was attacking the DNC for being mean again. The DNC was talking about how to respond.
6. A few days before #5, the DNC was wondering why Sanders was contesting CA because the math made it impossible for him to win.
7. A few weeks before #5, same thing. Wondering why Sanders was still holding on since there was no mathmatical way to win.
8. Around the same time (early May) a radio DJ wanted an interview with the DNC. Someone at the DNC said “wait is he a Bernie Bro?”

And that’s it. You can put each of these into one of three buckets:

1. One guy brought up the idea to target his religion and was shot down.
2. The Sanders campaign kept attacking the DNC publicly and the head of the DNC was venting internally about it.
3. Once the Sanders campaign had zero ability to win, DWS was wondering internally what he was playing at.

That’s a far cry from what the Russia disinformation campaign attempted to say with wikileaks. They pushed the theory that the DNC was purposely harming his campaign from the start to spread discontent and suppress the vote on the left. And sorry to rub salt in a wound, y’all, but it worked.

So when you hear Trump ranting about “The Deep State” that’s out to get him, it should sound familiar. It’s exactly the same theory that Bernie Sanders was able to push, without any evidence, when his campaign was faltering. And then it was eagerly amplified by Russia when they pushed the wikileaks story. But that doesn’t make it true.

If there was a DNC Deep State Conspiracy to screw Bernie in 2016, it sure as hell wasn’t talked about in the emails that the Russians made sure everyone on the left heard about. There’s about as much evidence for the theory as there is for QAnon, but convenient lies have a way of spreading. On the left and the right.