I watched Bernie Sanders’ recent video on Gaza, and it got me thinking about how different things could be now if he hadn’t been cheated out of the Democratic nomination in 2016 by Hillary and the DNC leadership. To refresh the details in your mind, you can read a bit about it here and here. It was a big enough story that even the New York Times had to acknowledge it, though with their characteristic understatement and obfuscation. The leaked DNC emails (leaked not hacked) revealed an internal plot against Bernie that was immediately overshadowed shoot-the-messenger messaging that turned the spotlight on Julian Assange. We learned that big “D” Democratic doesn’t mean little “d” democratic in the primaries.
I was never a Bernie fan, and I’m not now. One of my most widely read essays to this day is 2019’s “No, Bernie’s Not Antiwar,” though by early 2020 I wrote another piece supporting his candidacy, in part because his following among youth was so strong, and I felt they deserved to get who they wanted. Since then, he hasn’t done much to impress me other than his attempt to stop the killing in Yemen under Trump.
Nevertheless, when a popular video-sharing platform suggested his newest video to me, I gave it a watch, and I was pleasantly surprised.
It’s a little over eight minutes long, and Bernie makes a heartfelt presentation about Gaza and the genocide the Israelis are inflicting there. He doesn’t use “the G word” of course—he’s too much of an insider for that—and neither does he make a call for a ceasefire—which is what must be called for. But he puts all the terrible numbers out there—of dead, wounded and missing—and warns, rightly, of the suffering to come, far too soon, from disease and starvation. The accompanying images—while not the worst one can see—do convey the horrible circumstances. So, whether intentionally or not, the video makes the case for genocide and the need for a ceasefire, and that’s valuable. People on the fence could well be pushed over the line if they watched it.
At the end he mentions his recent failed legislation on the issue and implores people to pressure their elected representatives. His summation, though lacking specificity, is ethically straightforward: “US policy has got to change. We cannot be complicit in this terrible, terrible situation happening in Gaza, where so many innocent people are dying or starving.” We won’t hear anything like this from Biden or the majority of Democratic policymakers and appointees, and that too is valuable.
Then I thought to myself, “What if?” and imagined an alternate timeline.
2016: The Democrats hold an actually democratic primary and Bernie gets the nomination. Many voters were seeking an “outsider” that year, and for enough of them, Bernie fits the bill. Recall that, in our timeline, some people voted for Bernie in the primaries and Trump in the general. He wins the key swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that, in our timeline, Hillary lost to him in the primaries and to Trump in the general (by only 77,744 votes total), and is elected president, cleanly, with both the popular and electoral vote. Trump, who was only running because he was trying to get a better contract for “The Apprentice” anyway, returns to the entertainment world with some bluster and a shrug.
2017-2020: Bernie’s stance gradually becomes more sympathetic to Palestine and more critical of Israel, due to the influence of his base and of some of his appointees. Though his domestic agenda regarding health care, a living wage, etc., doesn’t advance as far as he or his supporters would like due to bipartisan opposition in Congress, he remains popular. Forgiving a large percentage of student debt keeps his base enthusiastic. So does a sensible COVID policy that eschews the denialism of both Trump and Biden in our timeline, and prioritizes human need above purely economic interests.
2020: The Republicans run Ted Cruz and Ben Carson—hoping to oust Bernie with what they pitch as the nation’s first entirely non-white ticket—and though the vote is closer this time, Bernie wins a second term.
2021-2023: Bernie’s stance on Israel/Palestine continues its slow but steady evolution leftward. When Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is assassinated by the IDF, he makes a big deal about it and threatens to condition future US aid on Israel’s behavior towards journalists, medics, and other non-combatants. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is averted since, in the absence of the paranoia-inducing Russiagate narrative, US policy toward Russia is less belligerent, and Putin doesn’t feel backed into a corner.
Oct. 7, 2024: Bernie condemns the Hamas attack on Israel but makes calls for “de-escalation/ceasefire,” an “end to violence/bloodshed” and “restoring calm”—which happen to be the three phrases that State Department officials in our timeline specified should not be used in press materials. He ends up cutting off military aid to Israel (as he is calling to do now) and the slaughter is much, much reduced. By now—January in our timeline—serious negotiations mediated by outside parties are underway.
This is what I imagined as I watched Bernie’s video. Not a perfect president. Not someone remotely close to my lefty dreams. Just someone who would be human about Gaza, rather than the monster we’re stuck with now, or the one who wants to replace him. The genocide Israel is perpetrating in Gaza was not inevitable. But for the wretched selfishness of Hillary and her neoliberal cabal, the world might very well be a more peaceful place right now.
