Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders march during a protest in downtown on July 24 in Philadelphia. | AP Photo Pro-Sanders protesters head to convention hoping ‘Democratic Party implodes’ Their primary candidate is pushing for a party that is both progressive and united, but some of his supporters are still berning.

Bernie Sanders is addressing the Democratic National Convention Monday night in what is supposed to be a clarion call for party unity, a final laying down of arms against the Democratic establishment and the completion of a full pivot from his primary race against Hillary Clinton and to attacking Donald Trump — and keeping the White House in Democratic hands for four more years.

But the trouble with a political revolution is that, once burning, it’s hard to snuff out, even when its leader asks to. And so, unity calls aside, some Sanders supporters will be outside the convention not to target Trump, but to protest a Democratic Party establishment that they maintain bilked their candidate out of the nomination.


“I wouldn’t say [I’m] ‘Never Hillary.’ I’d say “Never Democratic Party,’” said Laurie Cestnick, founder of Occupy DNC, a group dedicated to exposing what Cestnick says is the party’s history of “voter fraud.”

She’ll join other groups such as Black Men for Bernie and the Equality Coalition for rallies, marches and even a mock “Candlelight Vigil for the Death of Democracy.”

“They would rather see the Democratic Party implode and start all over than see Hillary become president,” said Bruce Carter, leader of Black Men for Bernie, a progressive group of Sanders supporters who say they’ll bring their movement to Philadelphia to register voters. Their emotions are “turning away from Bernie and toward discontent for the Democratic Party,” Carter said of his group’s members.

Occupy DNC will likely get the highest attendance at their protests this week, which include two full days of licensed space in Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park, only one mile from ground zero of the convention at the Wells Fargo Center. They have a permit for as many as 8,000 people and plan to lend some of their space to Carter and other protest groups to share their message.

The group is also holding a series of marches every day of the convention, each with a different theme — “Bernie or BUST!” and “We The People Restoration” among them — along with nighttime socials at the Trilogy Nightclub.

All of these events were planned before hacked Democratic National Committee emails revealed what appears to be a bias for Clinton and against Sanders — a revelation that has already forced Debbie Wasserman Schultz to step down as DNC chairwoman and triggered a fresh wave of anger among Sanders supporters against the party establishment.

“It’s just made us want to infiltrate the system more than we want to before,” Cestnick said. “We’ve been awakened.” Occupy DNC members have already distributed leaflets to delegates inside the Wells Fargo Center that accuses the Democratic Party of election fraud stemming back to at least 2000. While Cestnick, a former Sanders campaign volunteer, acknowledged that the chances of the Vermont senator eclipsing the party nomination are slim, her movement of close to 33,000 members on Facebook is looking far beyond 2016.

“We’re going to try to get Bernie supporters into Congress,” she said. “We’re here to let everyone know that we’re not going away.”

The pro-Sanders protesters will be a loud presence during the convention, but, according to polling, they’re outnumbered by Sanders supporters who are falling in line behind Clinton — especially since she got Sanders’ explicit endorsement.

In late June, a few weeks before Sanders’ endorsement, a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found 78 percent of Sanders supporters would vote for Clinton in a head-to-head matchup with Donald Trump. With third-party candidates on the ballot — such as Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson or Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein — 63 percent of Sanders supporters said they’d give Clinton the nod.

The number seems to be climbing. A week before Sanders’ endorsement, a Pew Research poll reported 85 percent of Sanders supporters would vote for Clinton in November.

While the vast majority of city-sanctioned protesters will be disillusioned progressive groups, some right-wing voices will likely make their voices heard in Philadelphia this week. The Westboro Baptist Church will protest in Philadelphia as it did in Cleveland for the Republican convention. And while none of them are currently registered with protest permits, it is possible pro-Trump groups will trek to the City of Brotherly Love as well.

For pro-Sanders protesters left to cope with the impending crowing of Clinton as the party’s nominee, this week marks the beginning of what they see as the real task: destroying the Democratic Party to rebuild it. After Clinton formally wins the nomination on Tuesday, Carter and Cestnick’s groups will hold a “massive deregistration from the Democratic Party,” he said. Other group goals include eliminating superdelegates from the party’s primary system, opening of primaries to independents and cross-over voters, offering more transparency in who funds party function and more progressive stances in the party platform.

Some of their supporters will write in Bernie’s name in November. Others are attracted to Jill Stein’s message, but writing down Clinton’s name is a compromise too far for many of these protesters, even if that means supporting her rival.

Black Men for Bernie supporters are “very comfortable with Trump,” Carter said. “We’ve had racist white men in the White House before. We’ve seen them at the top.”

“But you can’t have people say they’re on your side when they’re not on your side.”