‘Bernie Bros’ to Hillary: Ignore us at your peril

PHILADELPHIA—The biggest mistake any politician, pundit or anyone part of the Hillary Clinton campaign can make from the Democrat’s convention is to dismiss the endless demonstrations by Bernie Sanders supporters as being meaningless to people at home.

“That kind of attitude or way of thinking is so frustrating, it just reinforces exactly how we feel about them,” said Jude-Laure Denis of Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania.

{mosads}Denis, who runs a nonprofit that works within the community says her direct and daily contact with people proves that people are paying attention to this.

“Look, they know what is going on, they understand the system was rigged by the DNC against Sanders and goes to everything that they have suspected about how politics works,” said Denis.

The 49-year-old Pennsylvania delegate said the anti-establishment resentment is not limited to the show in Philly, “That is what this entire election cycle has been about, for both the Democrats and the Republicans, look at Donald Trump,” she said pointing to the Republican nominee.

“He has attracted even Democrat voters to his side — look I don’t agree with anything he says, but I sure do get why people supported him,” said Denis.

Clinton campaign manager, Robby Mook, spent Monday morning downplaying any unity issues surfacing during the four day event. However, outside the air-conditioned convention center in the sweltering 97 degree heat, thousands of Bernie Sanders supporters disagreed, mostly in very colorful interesting ways.

“Boy, was it depressing, it was all doom and gloom,” Mook said of the GOP’s Cleveland convention. “Our convention is going to be optimistic, it’s going to be hopeful, and it’s going to be talking about specific plans.”

“He could not be more out of touch,” Denis said, “I mean has he been outside?”

The drama of outgoing DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz played out everywhere here, but Mook insisted Democrats will emerge a “very united Democratic Party.”

One of Wasserman Schultz’ speaking engagements left on her schedule after being cut from the DNC program was an utter disaster when she showed up Monday morning to address delegates from her home state of Florida.

The crowd booed loudly and was very vocal in their displeasure with her holding signs that read, “We Don’t Want Cheaters In Our Party Anyway” and “Division.”

In the afternoon as Bernie Sanders gave what can only be described as a practice run of his speech to the press along with delegates and supporters, his impassioned speech on all of the social justice things he supported was abruptly jeered when he inserted “We have got to elect Hillary Clinton!”

The heckling slightly abated with a “We want Bernie” chant.

“I have never seen anything like this before,” said one Hillary supporter who has been attending conventions since the 1960’s.

“We aren’t unified, and anyone who tells you any different is lying,” the South Carolina Democrat said, adding that she was frustrated that the media was glossing over the mess.

“That does not help Hillary, the struggle needs to be reported so we can heal,” she said.

All along Broad Street from the iconic city hall stretching around the architectural masterpiece toward Arch Street where the conventional hall holding delegate meetings and press events, Sanders supporters crammed the streets and sidewalks with colorful homemade posters and signs.

Denis also pointed out that there is an elite structure in place that put the count of delegates for Clinton over Sanders.

“What people don’t get are super delegates, what they do get is the frustration in the streets.”

Super delegates are typically the most elite of the party; they are made up primarily of establishment members and elected officials — the very people that regular folks are fed up with.

“Here is the thing,” Denis said, “Pretending that the Republicans are the only party who has problems might be a nice story to tell, but it is not the right story. Go out and ask people in the streets back home, more than likely they are all about something different, something fresh, something that will blow up the system so that working people have more of a say,” she said.

“That is the real story.”

Zito is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial page columnist. Contact her at szito@tribweb.com.

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