Why Bernie Sanders Should Invoke Eugene Debs

[MineralMan]

10. Disregarding the fact that only a couple of percent of people

even know who Eugene Debs was, he also ran for President five time, losing spectacularly every one of them. Hardly a model for a presidential candidate in 2016, I'd think.

While it wouldn't really hurt Sanders to mention Debs and even to liken himself to that socialist pioneer, it also wouldn't do him a bit of good. It might lead a few people to look up Debs on Wikipedia, perhaps, but wouldn't garner him any additional votes.

Elections are won and lost by getting people to vote for you. People who don't know anything about Eugene Debs won't pay any attention. People who do know about Debs will probably remain of the same opinion of whom they prefer.

Very few American voters are history buffs. Debs is long out of the collective memory in this country. Aligning oneself with him will do no good in this election. No harm, either, but that's not the point of campaigning, really.

ETA: There actually is a town in Minnesota with the name Debs. It's named after Eugene Debs. At last count, it had a population of three. I'm sure each of them knows who Eugene Debs was. It's quite a remote little place, in the northern part of the state, and getting to it isn't easy, but it exists.