This time in 2008. Obama had a 3% lead over Clinton in the Reuters. Both Obama and Sanders have overtaken Clinton in the poll but Sanders came from a much larger deficit in a much quicker timeframe. Clinton had a 5% lead in the poll less than a month ago
Congrats, Sam "Revolutions don't mean "respectably double digits behind in some polls"; spearheading an electrifying revolution" are sort of a nice turns of phrase. You are true to your cynicism and small bore thinking which I hope is mainly due to when you were born or perhaps due to too dreary corporate documents proofread or drafted. Overall your posting suggests you may have trouble at times being contented while doing biz law chores for the elite. If you think Bernie's revolution is only about whether he beats Hillary in this election you are not paying attention to what is happening with Bernie, or his many volunteers beyond some mainstream media and pundits. It is pretty clear that Bernie would almost for sure become president of the US, if not this year but next term, if his age did not complicate this. Unlike the inexperienced young Mr. President Obama who was not really into movement building beyond his personal campaign, Bernie actually intends to keep building the movement whether he wins or loses this year. Perhaps Elizabeth Warren will pick up his mantle if he falters due to age. You can be sure, though it may not ignite any fire in your belly that there are young politicians in waiting ready to take up the banner. Bernie is talking about a change at least as great as the FDR New Deal and the increase in healthcare, education, poverty reduction, less lives ruined by mass incarceration etc. will feel pretty revolutionary for the millions who lives are impacted. I think once you make the American working class and poor wake up and become more engaged and comfortable till the point where they don't have to work 60 hrs a week and worry about next month's rent, paying for meds, their kid's tuition, they will be less easy to lead around by the nose any time the usual suspects want to scare them into another foreign war, hating Muslims, immigrants, etc. or keep them obsessed with a terrorist incident or two so they don't pay attention as the one percent keep grabbing more of the pie. Sam, as a member I assume of the top 10%, though "the revolution" may not affect you other than perhaps another couple of percent of taxes, it might even help you with your cynicism and truncated vision of what is possible in America and throughout the world.
The reason some people are so passionate about Mr. Sanders is he is the only possibility on the horizon to take government back from the oligarchs. The idea that we the people can make laws that best serve more of us and government serves the people not the money isn't radical, it's American. The nation was founded on the principle that power should not reside just with the privileged. The "revolution" he is leading is only one of the public state of mind. Over the last 50 years of increasing corporate influence, anything "social" has been demonized. Mr. Sanders, minority or not, is at least re-introducing democratic socialism, The American Ideal, as a viable idea to those whose reality is the propaganda of money-ruled politics. And make no mistake, it's Mr. Sander's ideological steadfastness and uncorrupted character that is allowing him to lead. Any weakness in those would be an open invitation to discredit him. Already in just the primaries the campaign strategist are exposing the slight discrepancies as faults.
I have trouble seeing how the Amercan system can recover. Oligarchs have solved the constitutional puzzle. The monied interests are so entrenched and so confident in their control that they are actively commuting blocking a Supreme Court nomination before the nomination is even made. And, in the process, creating a media narrative these their actions have president. We have seen Iran-Contra, the effects of deregulation, the Iraq war under Bush, citizens United, and the outright obstruction of the president by a party that has pretty much suffered little relative to the damage they have created. Sanders would just get Obama'd as would Clinton, except in cases she would be serving corporate interests. I see no case in which the GOP would change to actually governing or a case in which the American public alter their voting behavior to facilitate a new politics. For me, Sanders' candidacy has a pie in the sky quality attached to the hope that our system of government can be saved. And I am not so sure it can barring a disaster worse than the economic crisis Obama had to clean up.
As critical as I am of Sanders I wish him well in his cause but I think how he has gone about this has been flawed. From just recent history alone should show that winning the presidency is obviously very good but unsustainable for a movement. If Sanders really is serious about his movement beyond just his own race this really should be about party building. The GOP even while their national base decreases continues to be able to stymie a progressive, or even a moderate, agenda because they focused on building an institution from the ground up. While many young progressives turn out in droves in the Presidential elections they fail to turn up in local elections. As such the GOP has been able to control statehouses which means they've been able to control redistricting. As such for the next decade or so they have a distinct advantage in Congressional races. Controlling state houses also gives them a good platform for winning other statewide elections such as Senate. As such Congressional Dems have been fighting an uphill battle in terms of organization to try to control the Congress. This is where Sanders greatest strength is also his greatest weakness. His appeal has been very strongly as the outsider and not part of the establishment. The problem with that is the nature of the US government means by definition the establishment is who makes the laws. The establishment like Clinton not just because she has been there a long time, (even though Sanders has been in Congress longer) but because she has been a loyal Democrat who has campaigned and raised funds for many other Dems. Sanders wasn't even officially a Democrat until he decided to run for President. As such even if he wins he will face both just an entrenched opposition party but also his own party that will harbor skepticism about him. Of course the counter argument is that if he wins he will have such a mandate that the Dems will have to support him while Repubs will be cowed. Again consider that Obama rode in on a very impressive victory with a solid majorities in both houses. That didn't cow the GOP while many Dems didn't just go along with him. Obama hadn't even served a whole Senate term and hadn't built up the connections or the power base that allowed him to just take complete control of even his own party. Sanders is very likely going to deal with the same thing and worse since it is very unlikely if he wins he has same majorities as Obama did in 2009.
Great post. Nothing is more important than the possibility that Sanders will change the mindset of a nation, and if that happens then Western Europe too, and if that happens it could infect the world. Already Sanders has made it mainstream to mention the Koch brothers and other wealthy donors regularly and loudly by name. Already he has made Hillary the ice queen more liberal. He has brought to discussion the possibility of free college added to free school. It's true what JeffB is saying, the likelihood of the system changing positively from the inside is low. But if anyone can do it, it's Bernie. And if anyone can fail in such a way that it changes what type of people vote and what type of things people vote for, it's also Bernie. Sanders' campaign is as important to 2016 as it is to 2024. Personally I've speculated that the Republican party will not win another campaign for 30-40 years and the left win will wake up from the dead and re-organize for the first time in half a century to highlight what is truly the center and right wing. Consider for a second that the American public wants free or extremely flexible terms for college. That's over the vast majority of the country. If they get that, do you think anyone afterwards can get into office with the current Republican policy of: privatize it more, make it more expensive, make it more unequal. Not a chance. Once you give everyone what everyone wants for everyone, it's impossible for anyone to take it back in less than a few decades and less than a couple of trillion dollars. I don't think the right has it in them this time to recover. The country has passed them, their stronghold voters will literally be dead by the time Sanders' terms are up.
But it isn't that Republicans will be cowed, it's that they'll have one of their greatest weapons taken away from them. They won't be able to use the label "liberal" or "socialist" like the boogie man they have been. If Southern Democrats don't have to worry about the liberal label condemning them to being voted out, they will be more willing to vote for some of Sanders ideas. That's where the difference lies. He's demystifying and de-demonizing the label of being a liberal or socialist.
Funny how people always resort to insults. Don't think like I do... you must be stupid. I'm one of those who would vote for Bernie, but never Hillary. I've said I would consider voting for Trump as a vote against the establishment, not because I believe he would be a good president. I've never in my life felt like there was a candidate that reflected my views. The system is rigged. Bernie would shake it up. Trump would shake it up. Hillary is more of the same. But what do my opinions matter because I'm sure I lack your intellectual depth to think for myself because I think differently than you.
Bernie' campaign is among other things the end of trickle down/ voodoo/ supply side and the respectability of saying the cure for all problems is more tax breaks for the wealthy . Along with Trump it will put a real crimp in the idea of say shutting down whole mill towns in NC (it has happened) because the t-shirt can be made .50 c cheaper with near slave labor in Bangladesh and then with great expenditure of carbon be shipped back to the US. . Of course is is doubtful Trump will stop the companion policy of the US assisting in one way or another the local Bangladeshi factory owners to bust or imprison any workers there who demand better pay. I know all of a sudden right wingers/little guys in the US will all of a sudden get tears of concern of what will happen to the Bangladeshi women who might possible lose their jobs.
intellectual depth huh? Tell me how you want me to think? I'd rather the system economic system we have now be burned to the ground then let it continue any further. I'd rather watch the world BERN! I won't support another Wall-street, big business, special interest candidate again. If that results in riots, violence, revolution then so be it.
Guess what, the rich and powerful have always controlled governments, and they always will. What do you get when you have a revolution? You get rid one group of the rich and powerful and put in another group. What was Clintons before Bill became the governors? Not much, look at them now.
Glynch and SamFisher are the PERFECT BBS candidates to replicate Hillary vs Sanders. Well, not perfect. Glynch doesn't capture the vibe of Sanders quite like Sam gets the Hillary smugness, but still, worthy representations.
Oh I will vote for Sanders if it is him against Cruz or Trump, even if I think he will not be able to get anything done, better than letting nutcases in the white house.
You would be the type of people who are regretting their actions now in Syria. Burn the current system to the ground, lol.
Kennedy was killed by Sam Giancana man..... Oswald was a patsy fed LSD after being an American spy in Russia.... man. Those lasers man..... they give your balls radiation so you have to support the pharma industry by buying their cancer meds.... man. 911 was an inside job by Cheney and Haliburton... I saw the documentary man ... scary stuff. My balls are burning... damn hidden government lasers everywhere.
Just watched the town hall. Man, Bernie botched a big moment, gained nothing out of it. I would say it was Hillary's best performance easily. Making a dent in SC before super tuesday would have been great. Sanders needs to have a breakthrough moment, I'm hoping he's saving it for just the right time, but I think now is the time. And if Warren is going to weigh in, they need her NOW. Then again, the only impact these debates/townhalls seem to have on voting is how the media portrays them, which is often delineated from what actually happened. Plus Chris Cuomo. What a piece of **** that guy is. I never watch CNN so I didn't know anything about him. An affront to American citizens, this guy is using his job to protect insiders and keep his taxes where they are. Why the F would he ask Sanders about his religious beliefs? What does that have to do with being President? And right before SC of all places. Jesus. That's going to screw Bernie big time, highly underrated power move by Cuomo and CNN.
