This week, WikiLeaks published a series of emails from high officials at the Democratic National Convention, including even the DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, documenting, in no uncertain terms, that the DNC had chosen Hillary Clinton as its candidate of choice, and that it actively worked to have her elected, even at the expense of rigging the system against Bernie Sanders and violating the DNC’s promise of neutrality. These emails merely confirmed the long term suspicion of many supporters of Senator Sanders and the obvious truth to an objective bystander. DNC’s support for Hillary Clinton and against Senator Sanders were evident in many faucets ranging from debate schedules to actual voting in places like Nevada. However, Senator Sanders, despite having the political and financial capital, failed to rise to the occasion and act as a true leader or agent of change. Rather, in true political fashion, Senator Sanders simply resorted to verbal complaints. As Donald Trump would phrase it, an “all talk and no action politician.” Senator Sanders may have not wanted to jeopardize his position in the Democratic Party, or chances of success of Clinton against Trump, but he left 40% of the Democratic electorate who enthusiastically voted for him as an “agent of change” hanging to dry. In fact, despite the rhetoric of Senator Sanders in statements such as “Hillary Clinton is not qualified to be President,” he fully pledged his support to Hillary Clinton. In return, Hillary Clinton did not even see the need to take the supporters of Senator Sanders into consideration in selection of her Vice Presidential choice. Hillary Clinton’s choice of a moderate, establishment running mate was simply a slap in the face of all those who voted for Senator Sanders.
While Donald Trump faced a similar situation within the GOP, he managed to obtain a completely different outcome. He entered the GOP as an unconventional, recent Republican. He was ridiculed when he announced his candidacy for Presidency, and he faced sixteen other challengers, many times more than Senator Sanders’ only handful of challengers. In addition to opposition from a majority of the Republicans and the Republican party, Donald Trump also faced an unprecedented ridicule from the main stream media. Nevertheless, Mr. Trump employed his full array of negotiation and leadership skills to force his place in the Republican party and prevent a rigged result. By way of example, many criticized Mr. Trump’s initial refusal to sign the Republican party’s pledge; however, in hindsight, few can say that his strategy did not yield the intended result—despite all odds. It is true that Mr. Trump took many risks in the process, and suffered interim setbacks. But, Mr. Trump proved to have the right vision for his campaign, and was not afraid to take risks and possibly even fail. However, that is what real leaders to, that is the courage and strength that real leaders should have, and that is what gave Mr. Trump and his supporters the nominee that they voted for.
While many continue to ridicule or dismiss Donald Trump, he has proven successful where the full force of supporters of Bernie Sanders has failed. Where Bernie Sanders failed to rise as a real leader and oppose an openly rigged system even with roughly half of the votes of the people and millions of dollars in donations, Donald Trump forced his position in the Republican party against all odds and with a much lower percentage of votes of the Republican electorate. It is true that Debbie Wasserman Schultz was forced to resign as the DNC chairwoman after the leaked emails; however, this too little too late remedy will not change the outcome of a rigged system or undo the injustice to many supporters and donors of Bernie Sanders. In reality, Senator Sanders was an old time politician, a wolf in sheep clothing, but not the real leader and agent of change that Donald Trump proved to be.
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