j reacts to accusations that sanders is working for the party to suppress the left

this article is describing the situation properly, but it is overestimating where america stands in it's social advancement. if america were europe, or canada, this argument would be reasonable. but, the levels of inequality in america - along with it's culture of glorified militarism and it's widespread working class support for the most brutal types of social darwinism imaginable - make it more comparable to dickensian britain and the necessary tactics more aligned to those used there, or elsewhere when the social advancement was so low. american leftists need to stop thinking of america as an advanced country and reject the kind of tactics we have been using in the modern world in favour of the kind of tactics that the modern world utilized a century prior - when it was at the level of social development that america is at today.

the social revolution must come first. but, in america they need a social awakening before they can have a social revolution.

the struggle in america should consequently be focused on winning the kinds of basic reforms that have been won elsewhere in the developed world. america cannot begin to talk about socialism until it has a functioning public education system. it cannot begin to organize until it has a functioning health care system. & etc. we don't even have to worry about maoism when the most impoverished are told by their religious leaders - and believe - that they need to work harder to get ahead, that they are being restricted by government policies designed to strangle the "free market"....

so, yes: sanders is a front. but, it's less that he's conspiring to give legitimacy to a party that deserves none and more that he's being played like a fool - and perhaps that he actually is a fool. he is arguing for nothing more than the realization of the promises of eleanor roosevelt more than a half century ago - minor concessions to deliver the reward of basic human rights. and, they are minor concessions. but, the kinds of minor concessions that this article is rejecting as insufficient have to, rather, be seen as starting points. they are certainly insufficient. but, there is no deeper revolutionary potential in a country reared on institutional violence. they are simply too deeply brainwashed; bernie is exactly what they needed, whether he gets crucified in the end or not.

to see him as an end point is an error. but, everything has to start somewhere - and this is where it must start, in america: education  & health care.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/06/13/bernie-sanders-orchestrated-demise/