Why Bernie Sanders Will Win This Election—Even If He Doesn’t Win the White House

[eridani]

http://inthesetimes.com/article/18351/bernie-sanders-president-election

The good news is that the 2016 presidential race has become a “mad-as-hell” campaign. The better news is: Bernie Sanders will win it.

Campaigns of the mad-as-hell type are rare in our American politics. The past five presidential election seasons—stretching from Bill Clinton’s victory’s in 1996 re-election campaign to Barack Obama’s re-election in 2012—were business-as-usual affairs, leading to relatively modest tacks to the left or the right. Such election seasons change the parties’ priorities and the themes that dominate our political discussions in fundamental ways. The electorate decides, as the protagonist of the 1976 movie Network did, that it isn’t going to take this anymore.

<snip>

The most obvious evidence that this is a mad-as-hell election season comes from the GOP, notably from Donald Trump—but also from several second-tier candidates, including Ted Cruz, Scott Walker and Ben Carson. Some of their themes—like their attacks on reproductive rights and LGBT equality, and their strident defense of “Christian America”—have been consistent parts of the Republican playbook for decades. But Trump’s revival of anti-immigrant policy proposals has been the most potent force on the Right—and the most surprising. A party whose future depends on attracting more minorities is flirting with a self-styled “truth-teller” whose rhetoric and policy proposals are incoherent nonsense—and so deeply offensive to Hispanics that his net favorability rating among them is negative 51 points (a rating that will likely only continue to slide after Trump’s recent ejection of Univision anchor Jorge Ramos from a press conference).

For that reason, Trump’s campaign is more likely the last stand of the GOP’s most fervent base than a sign of its strength. He will go on drawing huge crowds because “people are super tired of politicians,” as Howard Stern put it recently, and because an anti-establishment business leader with charisma will always charm a certain segment of the electorate. One who aggressively pushes their hot buttons will thrive, at least for a time.

But it’s Bernie Sanders, not Donald Trump, who represents the future, and it’s Sanders who is channeling the pent-up, reformist energy that will reshape our politics over the coming decades. He is, as David Shribman wrote recently for RealClearPolitics, “a man on fire,” and his message is perfectly in tune with the times. “This is where a good portion of the Democratic Party is today—proud of electing Barack Obama but disappointed he didn’t go far enough,” Shribman writes, “skeptical of trade pacts, fired with revulsion about police excesses, convinced economic mobility is more a phrase from the American past than a touchstone of the American future, wary of half-steps on the economy and ritualistic bows to progressive issues.”

[LiberalElite]

1. K&R

[asiliveandbreathe]

2. Even If he doesn't win the WH - >>>???

Then what is the point...unless I misread the headline! - reshape our politics - a man on fire - in tune with the times...listen, I really like Bernie..and much can/has been said for his platform..that I completely agree with...but - EVEN IF HE DOESN"T WIN THE WH???? -

Courtesy Rolling Stones

We went down to the demonstration
To get your fair share of abuse
Singing, "We're gonna vent our frustration
If we don't we're gonna blow a fifty-amp fuse"

You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes well you just might find

[asiliveandbreathe]

3. You get what you need!

Over 400 days left...this pacifist will wait and watch...but will NEVER let a republican near the WH....

[mother earth]

4. Got that right. I don't care what happens, this populist movement is going to be here & is only

beginning. They haven't seen anything yet. The more screwed over the masses are, the more the corporations gain influence, the day of reckoning is coming. So, if TPTB steal this one again, like we know they have in the past, they aren't killing off the masses that are effectively saying ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

I see it all around, no one you ever talk to is happy about this election, & they aren't happy about the economy, or much else.

K & R