After Nevada debacle, democracy feels the burn

By Brian Greenspun (contact)

Sunday, May 22, 2016 | 2 a.m.

I know this isn’t politically correct, but it is democratically necessary.

It is no secret that Secretary Hillary Clinton is my friend. It is also well-known that my wife and I are ardent supporters of Clinton’s candidacy for president of the United States. We believe she is probably the best-qualified candidate in our lifetime to take that office on Day 1, and do that job throughout her term or terms of office.

There, I have declared my bias. So, now I am going to say something that is probably not helpful to my friend’s campaign to be elected president.

Bernie Sanders is responsible for the abhorrent behavior of his followers at the Democratic State Convention last weekend in Las Vegas. And it is incumbent upon him to fix this before it gets any worse.

Just as I believe that Donald Trump is responsible for the un-American actions of his supporters throughout the primary campaign, so too should Sen. Sanders be held accountable for not explicitly demanding that his unruly supporters eschew violence, bullying and death threats.

It is not enough to say “we don’t condone violence” when there is ample evidence to believe that some people who will act in his name either aren’t listening or don’t have a clue how to act in public in the first place.

When candidate Sanders says that expressing First Amendment rights is an important part of the democratic process — yes, it is — without imploring those who are given to violent behavior to express those rights in a responsible and law-abiding way, he gives tacit approval or turns a blind eye to what inevitably will happen next.

And what happened next at the May 14 convention at the Paris Las Vegas was not only despicable and deplorable, it was the kind of behavior most of us were brought up to believe only happened in Third World, undemocratic countries.

And yet, it happened here; so much so that the lawyer for the Nevada Democratic Party felt the need to alert the national Democrats to watch out for similar behavior when they convene this summer in Philadelphia.

There are so many reasons that could be to blame for where our democracy finds itself in 2016: a generation of Americans who lack schooling in government, critical thinking and communication; the rise of the internet in which every person becomes his or her own expert without any governor on bad ideas; an environment of discourse in which facts no longer matter and opinions — no matter how outrageous — are adopted as facts; or a general belief that government is always the problem because we have had a full generation of such scapegoating. To choose just one would be to ignore the plain reality.

Our democracy is showing signs of trouble at the same time those in leadership positions don’t display the spine or desire to lead our citizens toward the kind of civilized behavior befitting our democracy.

Those same leaders must see some perverse benefit in their failure to lead, because ignorance of political rules and process has led to violence that sabotages public discourse. That path leads to anarchy that, sad to say, appears to be a goal of some in our society.

DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz responded to the Nevada warnings by saying, “There is no excuse for what happened in Nevada, and it is incumbent upon all of us in positions of leadership to speak out.”

Well, I haven’t been a Democrat for all that long, but I have been an American voter for decades. And what I personally saw and heard May 14 was chilling and scary and disheartening because people seemed to have no idea what their role has to be as citizens in a democracy

To be sure, the vast majority of Sanders supporters in the room were not the bad actors — the interrupters, the obscenity-hurlers, the fist pumping and foot stompers, and the violence threateners — but they remained absolutely still and silent in the face of all the anti-democratic activity.

I said this may not be helpful to Hillary because who knows how the bad actors in the Sanders camp will react to being called out for their harmful behavior. Secretary Clinton will need every Democrat and many others if she is to win the presidency against Donald Trump, so giving any Sanders supporter an excuse to stay home is not necessarily wise.

But not calling them out would be worse.

Our democracy cannot long endure constant, unrelenting and unruly mobs. We need real leaders to step up and show Americans a better, more civil, way.

I was embarrassed for Nevada last week. But that pales in comparison to the fear I feel for our democracy, which is showing disturbing signs of losing its mind.

Somebody, please tell me I am wrong.

Brian Greenspun is publisher, owner and editor of the Sun.