I
am still holding out hope for a Sanders victory, but in the chance,
which is very likely, that he does not win this, if he comes close, the
DNC will have to take him and his followers very seriously. The DNC will have
to offer him a consequential seat at the table when crafting the
Democratic Party's National Platform. Perhaps if Bernie's supporters are
more interested in the man than the policies it won't matter, but a lot
of us are interested in policy. If his supporters see that he is in the room and that as much as is possible his policies are making it into the platform you could still keep enough of his supporters interested. I think some older voters, have this mistaken belief that party should trump principles. They grew up on 'don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good'. But a lot of us millennial and gen x or y-ers, don't see the party as a good in and of itself, but actually an impediment to overcome, many of Sanders supporters might not even consider themselves to be democrats.
Though I am registered as a democrat, I consider myself independent; I am not invested in the democratic party surviving, especially in this form. It would be incredibly naive to believe that the message that got the youth riled up can now be channeled into supporting the system we're fed up with. I can imagine a scenario where the Clinton team overestimates their win and their mandate and alienates the younger voters that they need to win the general election.
So seeing how politics is part getting things done and part compromise, it will be incumbent on the Hillary team and supporters, if she were to win, to decide how they plan, to not co-opt Bernie's message and his supporters, because it absolutely will not work, but how they can prove that they heard us and that their policies have taken our views into account, that perhaps when it comes to the issues that motivate young voters they are mostly clueless.
Even if Hillary clenches the nomination, it will be by a pretty tight margin, and Sanders will still have overwhelmingly won the youth vote. Whether my cohort of voters stays engaged or not is not really the question, they likely will. The question is do we use our new found voice, power, energy and organization to fix what's broken with the system or to try and tear it down.
