PHILADELPHIA — Chants of "Bernie!", and boos whenever Hillary Clinton’s name was mentioned, filled the opening hours of the Democratic National Convention, with delegates supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) of Vermont repeatedly drowning out other speakers with their vocal dissent.
Never mind that after the weekend’s Wikileaks scandal revealed bias against Senator Sanders, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) issued a formal apology, forced the resignation of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and moved Senator Sanders’ speech to the final keynote spot. His supporters were largely unappeased.
Indeed, the Vermonter whose insurgent campaign tapped into latent frustration with America’s political system, is now finding that many of those he inspired are unwilling to fall into line. Sanders delegates here emphasize that he’s not directing them, and that any protest activity on the floor is a result of grass-roots activism. That makes the push for unity, now coming from both Mrs. Clinton and Sanders, an even more daunting challenge.
“If we learned one thing from Bernie Sanders, it’s that the movement is about all of us, not him,” says Justin Molito, a union organizer from Connecticut who is attending the convention as a Sanders delegate. “So when he asks us not to protest, I’d respectfully disagree. You have to make a moral choice about what your role is here.”...
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