The New York Times took a double-barrelled shot at Bernie Wednesday. An op-ed painted him as out of step with real progressives and yesterday's news. An editorial blog speculated on cabinet posts, platform planks and other tangible goods as his goal.
Gimme a break. When no one else would take up the cudgels a grumpy, frumpy, Jewish, Independent, Socialist Brooklyn Vermonter built a campaign that shook up the world. He came close, in the realpolitik world of elections that the Left misreads regularly. He's a hero. Let progressives wait a decent interval before dumping on him. Better yet, don't dump on him at all.
It takes a special talent to force ideas into the electoral process. As a result of his efforts there will be concrete changes in things like the cost of higher education, regulation of financial institutions, tax policy and more. Bernie will be to 21st century politics what Eugene Victor Debs was to the 20th.
OK, but what does he want?
He wants the movement he captained to survive and prosper. Remember his antecedents. Occupy Wall Street burned its' message into the collective consciousness, and then disappeared. People listened when Occupy said that money and corporations had captured government and politics. The 1 percent were reaping almost all the benefits of the American economy. Minority communities were under siege. Regular folks were less secure, less happy, less hopeful, less well-off and less important than they had ever been. But no one in the political class seemed to care, or picked up the message when Occupy vanished into the ether.
Bernie cared and set out to right these wrongs. Having come second, he still wants to right these wrongs. You can't buy him off with a job, or a one-time document. He wants his campaign/movement to survive. He wants them to help elect Hillary. He wants Hillary to adopt his program. He wants the ability to mobilize the troops again if things go wrong. He wants to reshape the government in the interest of the people.
Hillary gets it, and is perfectly capable of working with Bernie as a partner. If she's smart, she will. If she chooses otherwise, Bernie wants to hold her feet to the fire. In the short run, give him the respect he deserves. At the convention, and even on the pages of the New York Times. In the long run, let the ideas and forces he unleashed run free. That's what Bernie wants.