Here’s How Bernie Sanders Could Win in November

[eridani]

ttp://www.thenation.com/article/heres-how-bernie-sanders-could-win-in-november/

It’s also unclear how effective conservative red-baiting would be in discouraging the “Obama coalition” of educated white liberals and people of color to abandon Sanders. They were told in 2008 that the black guy with the Arabic middle name would lose several points in a general election relative to a more mainstream candidate, and they saw him win twice. Media siloing—the increasing tendency to get our information from media sources we agree with and like-minded people on social media—makes it harder for Republicans to set the terms of the debate today than it was even during the Swift-boat campaign 12 years ago.

Finally, there’s the question of how much candidates and campaigns really matter. Political scientists tell us they do matter, but far less than most people think. In a race between two traditional candidates, economic trends and the popularity of the outgoing or incumbent president give one party or the other a structural advantage in the race. That should hold true with two non-traditional candidates as well. And if campaigns and candidates do matter, and not just at the margins, then an objective observer has to give Sanders some credit for being a genuine and charismatic candidate, and his campaign some credit for getting him to the position he’s in now. You can’t ignore the possibility that in a time when a lot of people see the game as rigged, his singular focus on how political inequality drives economic inequality has real appeal. And in the (unlikely) event that Sanders overcomes some incredibly steep odds to defeat a better-funded, mainstream candidate with an enormous amount of establishment support in the primary, he will have proven that he’s an adroit politician.

So to answer Jay Michaelson, Sanders’s path to victory isn’t hard to see: A billion-dollar smear campaign against him has limited impact on young voters, urban liberals and people of color, who come out in force against either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz for obvious reasons, including an open Supreme Court seat, and the Dems’ demographic and Electoral College advantages carry the day. Clinton supporters would be better off sticking to the argument that Clinton faces better odds, and that having better odds is enough reason to support her, given how high the stakes will be in November.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. The Sanders Coalition isn't quite the same as the 'Obama Coalition'.

But, the OP points out, the likely Republican candidates have been giving a lot of people who were part of the Obama Coalition, but aren't as excited about Sanders, a lot of reason to come out and vote AGAINST them in a general. Sanders doesn't NEED to make the 'lesser evil' argument to win over 'lesser evil voters'. They do it to themselves. They will always vote for any Dem candidate over any Repub candidate, especially when the Republican candidates are going out of their way to demonize so many groups of people.