“The DNC documents show this election really wasn’t an election at all. It was a coronation,” said Joshua Rothstein, a 25-year-old comedian from Brooklyn, his cardboard-and-duct tape pitchfork in hand. “Before those documents came out, I would have been happy to support Hillary.” But, he says, “the leaks put me over the edge.”
Wasserman Schultz’s departure, especially the day before the convention begins, instantly casts the Democrats as a party in turmoil. That’s a far cry from the image the party hoped to present after a contentious primary season and a Republican convention last week that revealed another party embroiled in internal conflict. Instead, the leaks—including emails in which DNC staffers plot to exploit Sanders’ Jewish heritage to undercut his campaign—have rekindled the resentment that fired Sanders’ many primary victories against Clinton. Now the same tool that was supposed to help propel Clinton to victory is once again dragging her down. The Clinton campaign’s superior tech savvy still promises to be an asset come election day. But the Internet’s most banal medium of all—email—has become Clinton’s greatest liability. […]
Just who got their hands on the emails first, however, will likely make little difference to the people marching in the streets this week and going to the polls in November. The fact is they belong to the Internet now.
“It’s pretty fucking damning,” said Parisa Vahdatinia, a 31-year-old engineer from Brooklyn, as she held a sign that read #NeverHillary.
Whether the leaks will inspire Democrats to leave the party, as Vahdatinia predicts, is still unclear. But they give Sanders himself a very strong hand in shaping the party’s future. When he takes the stage at the Democratic convention tomorrow, his former followers will be looking to him for guidance.
