By Anthony Cody.

I noticed an interesting phenomenon on some progressive web sites over the past week or two. Even with the California and New Jersey primaries still looming a couple of weeks from now, the focus has shifted to supporting Clinton, and news of Sanders has been put on the back burner. A look at the front page of Crooks and Liars reveals a dozen stories about Trump, and a couple favorable to Clinton, including this breathless report of Bill Clinton “debating” a young Sanders supporter for thirty minutes. But no major stories about Sanders — not even the news of a possible Trump/Sanders debate. This web site has apparently decided that the election will be between Clinton and Trump, and no further coverage of the Sanders campaign is needed.

Politics is a team sport, and some have decided the time has come for the team to unite behind Clinton. So Sanders is not to be mentioned. Instead we focus on the issues both “teams” can all agree to disagree about. Transgender bathrooms. Guns. Gay marriage. Abortion. Voting rights. Immigration reform. Bashing Trump. These are ON the table for debate.

But what other issues are off the table because the Democratic Party “team” does not have a unified stance?

One of the things I have appreciated about the Sanders campaign has been the space it has opened up to question some “progressive” orthodoxies. We have seen moving videos of Berta Caceres, made prior to her tragic assassination, calling out Clinton’s support of a military coup in Honduras. In my view “progressives” should not support military coups in Latin America – but this issue will not be mentioned if Clinton becomes the nominee. We have heard questions raised about uncritical support for Israel – again, this will be off the table. Even the fracking that is destroying groundwater across the country and the world will be swept under the rug.

Of course the hallmark of the Sanders campaign has been his calling out Wall Street financiers and hedge funders, and if we get down to a Clinton/Trump race that will be greatly muted as well. The progressive focus will be on how scared we all should be of a Trump presidency.

This “progressive” team unity has left some other huge issues off the table. As I wrote last year, K-12 education has been largely ignored by progressives – even “bold” ones. Republicans regularly assail public education, promote vouchers and attack teacher unions. But the Obama administration has been almost as bad, promoting charter schools, high stakes testing and Teach For America. School closures have continued to ravage African American and Latino communities, and those responsible are just as likely to be Democrats as Republicans. As a result, many “progressives” keep quiet about K12 education, because we need to preserve party unity. Teacher unions have joined in this, by granting early endorsements to President Obama in spite of his policies, and an early endorsement of Clinton with little evidence of clear commitments on these issues.

A heavy price is being paid for this silence.

Sanders supporters are being told to shut up and get behind the “presumptive nominee.” And this sort of party unity also means there will be little discussion of the issues that Democrats lack unity on, including K12 education. But we should not be quiet about issues that matter, whether it is military dictatorships in Central America, the abandoned people of Gaza, or the future of public education. Not for the sake of party unity, and not for the sake of defeating Trump.

There is not time between now and November to build a third party that could win, so I am not calling for such a run at the presidency this fall. Trump is atrocious, and must be defeated – we can agree on that much. And I will vote for the Democratic nominee, whether it is Clinton or Sanders. But I do not think we should be content with a candidate (or party) just a bit better than a blowhard authoritarian racist like Trump.

Our public schools cannot withstand another eight years of the Obama administration’s policies in education (and if a Democrat backed by the same hedge funders and bankers is elected, that is what we are likely to get.) We cannot stand to see schools closed and turned over to charter operators, or career teachers replaced by two year temps from TFA. School closures stink whether ordered by Republicans or Democrats. Advocates for students and teachers should continue to make noise, and if neither one of the two major parties is willing to take up our cause, we should look for other outcasts, and build a movement – and a political party — that will put our issues front and center.

What do you think? Does the drive for Democratic “party unity” help explain why there is so little public discussion of the bipartisan assault on public education?