Bernie Sanders' Secret Recipe to His Surge in the Polls: Standing for What the People Want

[Demeter]

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/bernie-sanders-secret-recipe-his-surge-polls-standing-what-people-want?akid=13471.227380.OvSOED&rd=1&src=newsletter1042320&t=4

Bernie Sanders' insurgent campaign for the White House has surprised many with his rising poll numbers putting him in competitive territory in both of the first primary and caucus states. Many have wondered what has propelled a once obscure independent senator from Vermont into such strong standing in the Democratic primary. His secret recipe is simple: he stands for what Americans are demanding. Here are some examples:

Health Care: While Sanders supported the Affordable Care Act, he supports the broader solution that a majority of Americans and even a quarter of Republicans support: a Medicare-for-all system. It's a policy he brings up in virtually every stump speech in every part of the country. Sanders also has a plan to let people import pharmaceutical drugs from Canada and allow Medicare to bargain for drug prices, something that polls very well.

Wages: Sanders supports a proposal to bring the national minimum wage to $15 an hour over a number of years. A recent national poll found 63 percent of Americans support this policy.

Climate change: Sanders promotes a carbon tax to directly deal with global warming, choosing not to deal with overly complex cap and trade schemes. Two-thirds of Americans support some form of refundable carbon tax.

Breaking up banks: Sanders wants to break up America's too-big-to-fail banks, something just 23 percent of Americans opposed doing in 2013.

The secret to Bernie Sanders' campaign is actually pretty simple. His rivals in both parties often attune their plans to the interests of donors, balancing their concerns with those of the American people. Sanders isn't doing that. He has built his campaign on the backs of small donors who represent most Americans, and he is promising them exactly what they want.

Zaid Jilani is an AlterNet staff writer.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. One caveat.

He has built his campaign on the backs of small donors who represent most Americans, and he is promising them exactly what they want.

He's not. He's promising to FIGHT FOR what we want. He's not making promises to political naifs who will fall into a swoon if he can't achieve "EVERYTHING" they want, but rather to pragmatic people who know that to ever achieve anything, you have to actually try first.

[merrily]

5. Brilliant, as usual, Erich.

[bvf]

9. An important distinction.

That's why he calls this an effort that necessarily involves his supporters. He is truly the most engaging candidate, in the best sense of the word.

[Enthusiast]

11. Excellent distinction.

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[PatrickforO]

2. Bernie has elevated the dialog.

The days when politicians can be elusive about the real economic issues to placate their donors while seeming liberal on selected social issues are gone. At least this time around.

[senz]

3. Yes. Bernie puts the people first. The only one who does that.

Which is a sad commentary on our broken political system.

[cantbeserious]

4. People First - No Citizen Need Settle For The Lesser Of Two Corporate Evils - Go Bernie Go

eom

[Enthusiast]

13. People first has become a lost concept. We must change that. Every election we hear plenty

of people first lip service. And that is as far as it goes.

[merrily]

6. I'm sorry, Zaid. We've been told repeatedly that promising the electorate what they want

renders a politician unelectable because the perfect is the enemy (or some crap to that effect).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12777036 (Let's talk polls, aka what the people want)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/128046511 (In politics, the "conventional wisdom" may be neither conventional nor wisdom. Discuss.)

[Enthusiast]

15. Those are some great threads, merrily! "Don't let the perfect become the enemy of the good."

[merrily]

18. Thanks, Enthusiast. You are always kind.

I prefer, "Don't let a shit sandwich become the enemy of the good (people)."

[Enthusiast]

19. If we don't strive for perfection we will get what we deserve. As with the health care legislation.

Start from a position of strength by touting all the many positives to be gained through single payer. This would have built public support and expectations. Then opponents would have been happy to bargain you down to a robust public option. Just my hypothesis.

[Mabus]

7. Another thing Bernie brings is civility

He stays focused on the issues and refuses to play the games the MSM wants. Until now he has been paying a price for it in terms of less of coverage. But they can't ignore him any longer. They'll have to start giving him airtime because he's becoming the front runner. They'll hate that. They'll actually have to know something about Americans and how they really feel.

I hope Bernie has the same effect on what the media cover as he has on the dialogue.

[appalachiablue]

8. Yet Bernie will fight if necessary for something he believes in. No wimp and I respect that.

Saw him give it back to an out of line questioner (badger) at a public policy forum last June.

Go Bernie Go!

[Mabus]

12. I agree but he does it with civility

He's no wimp. He's very passionate about what he believes and it inspires me and the other Bernie supporters I know.

[appalachiablue]

14. Civil for sure & passionate. His authenticity is rare & encouraging, more than I've seen in decades.

[Babel_17]

10. Lol, I can't think of anything new to add to the comments already here

The conversation Sanders is engaging us with is indeed the conversation we've been hoping for. Everybody else (with a few exceptions) is going to have to retool their campaigns to deal with this change in peoples expectations.

Good luck with getting out of the corner they've painted themselves into.

[Enthusiast]

16. K&R! This post should have hundreds of recommendations!

What the People Want, what an interesting concept!

[gordianot]

17. Imagine abandoning negative campaigning.

Offering solutions to actual problems and not who you once encountered, wedge issues, staying in the scope of the electorate and avoiding personal attacks. The opposition party GOP front runner is at this point truly the exact opposite of Bernie Sanders. The only fear I have in this Sanders is irreplaceable.