Rick Treviño was outside the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia when a reporter from Fusion TV stuck a microphone in his face.

Treviño, a local Democratic activist, was in Philly as a national delegate for Bernie Sanders. He had spent a solid year spearheading the grassroots San Antonio for Sanders group. He had even organized a 2015 Labor Day “Latinos for Bernie” rally downtown to refute U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro’s suggestion that Sanders wasn’t sensitive to Hispanic concerns.

Treviño spent much of the election cycle warning anyone who would listen that his party needed to assert itself as a progressive force and not settle for “corporate Democrats,” such as eventual nominee Hillary Clinton.

When the Fusion reporter turned to him on July 27 and asked about the party’s prospects against Republican nominee Donald Trump, Treviño tried to play the good soldier. But he couldn’t hide his fear that Trump would steal the populist mantle in the general election.

“I’m worried about that Rust Belt,” Treviño said.

Three and a half months after that interview, the American electorate has made Treviño a prophet.

When Clinton’s firewall came tumbling down Tuesday in the Rust Belt states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio, Trump’s upset victory was all but assured.

Clinton’s loss and its likely ramifications — the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act, the repealing of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law and the appointment of conservative Supreme Court justices — has many Bernie backers fuming that Sanders would have been a better messenger than an establishment figure who accepted six-figure speaking gigs from investment banks and solicited donations from corporate megadonors.

Treviño, who voted for Clinton in the general election but could not bring himself to work for her, was among those frustrated Wednesday-morning quarterbacks.

“The Democratic Party’s arrogance is the reason for this loss,” Treviño said. “They saw a total populist moment, looking them right in the face, and they stuck to their guns and said, ‘No, we’re going to pick our candidate, though she might have all this baggage.’”

Democrats will spend the next four years questioning the wisdom of clearing the field for Clinton, with prominent figures such as Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden and Cory Booker all deciding to stay out. The fact that Sanders, an independent, septuagenarian senator from Vermont who self-described as a democratic socialist, was able to win 23 primaries and caucuses should have been an unmistakable red flag for Dems.

The biggest red flag came from Michigan, where Sanders — in a foreshadowing of what Trump pulled off on Tuesday — defied all predictions and scored a narrow win over Clinton. Among other things, that breakthrough gave the lie to the suggestion that Sanders’ appeal was limited to hipster millennials and showed he could also reach blue-collar workers.

While Clinton will ultimately win the popular vote against Trump by at least a million votes, she didn’t generate enough support in the states she needed. While Republicans would have caricatured Sanders as a wild-eyed extremist (both Trump and radio titan Rush Limbaugh referred to him as “Crazy Bernie”), they couldn’t have saddled him with the ethics baggage they dumped on Clinton.

“This (Clinton’s nomination) is the biggest mistake in the Democratic Party’s history,” Treviño said, citing Joaquin Castro and his brother, HUD Secretary Julián, for siding with Clinton over Sanders.

“They thought they knew better than us. They stuck to this stupid strategy that we could overcome a candidate with so many unfavorables. Their strategy got us to a Trump presidency.”

Clean sweep

in Windcrest

Things got testy during election time in the Northeast Bexar County suburb of Windcrest, like they always do. Amid fights over mosquito spraying and backyard chickens, the election came down to a contest between slates supportive and opposed to volatile Mayor Alan Baxter.

The process divided the town and resulted in the arrest of an anti-Baxter activist, Karl Amrhein, for allegedly attacking the wife of Councilman Gerd Jacobi, outside a polling site. On Tuesday, the pro-Baxter side scored a clean sweep, including three council races and the recall of Councilwoman Kim Wright.

Consider Baxter’s power consolidated.

ggarcia@express-news.net

Twitter: @gilgamesh470