2016 Postmortem

portlander23

(2,078 posts) Tue Sep 29, 2015, 01:38 PM Sep 2015

Observer: How Bernie Sanders Can Win

What Kennedy did in 1968, which Bernie Sanders has the potential to do in 2016, is unite poor and working class voters of all races behind a populist campaign of fighting for the economic interests of the voters that the Occupy Wall Street movement brilliantly labeled the 99 percent, against super-wealthy and greedy special interests that OWS called the 1 percent.

What Mr. Sanders has in his favor—and it creates a substantial and unique opportunity for him in 2016—is that he is both the most legitimately populist candidate in either party who can claim to be aggressively fighting for poor and working people of all races, and he is the most authentic candidate in either party who fights for his beliefs and against almost every political status quo that voters detest and are rebelling against in this election.

Another potential advantage for Mr. Sanders that political insiders underestimate is his potential to dramatically increase the size of the electorate by inspiring young voters to come to the polls in waves.

The next test for Mr. Sanders, which is now in the early stages, will be to broaden his populist appeal in Southern, border and Western states to include more black voters, Hispanic voters, and white populist voters outside of New England and Northern states.

Conservatives and Republicans win when they can persuade voters to vote against their own economic interests, often by dividing Americans race against race, which divides many white voters against black and hispanic voters.

Liberals and Democrats win by uniting diverse groups of Americans, across lines of race and income, based on their shared economic interests. This is the heart of the rationale for the Bernie Sanders candidacy. Can he pull it off? You bet he can.