Welp, as I said to a colleague, the Democratic primary is not shaping up as I wanted. A strong field has been reduced to a handful of flawed candidates. And leading that list are Sanders and Bloomberg. Ugh.
Sanders is killing in the national polls, but that’s due in large part to his popularity in states that are going to vote blue anyway. Like California.
But we have the electoral college, and Sanders needs to win swing states. Trump, in his tweets, clearly wants to run against Bernie, and it’s not hard to see why. People fear socialism. 58% of Americans fear it according to a recent poll. And all they have to do is tack that on to Bernie, and Dems have lost.
Sanders has emphasized that his version of socialism is avowedly small-d democratic and anti-authoritarian. “We must recognize that in the 21st century, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, economic rights are human rights. That is what I mean by democratic socialism,” the senator said last year in a speech where he defined his views.
The results of a separate poll, also released Wednesday, indicate that maybe socialism isn’t quite enjoying the surge that Bernie is. Only 28% of Americans said they had a favorable view of the Sanders-embraced ideology — and 58% said they had an unfavorable impression, according to an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll.
But that’s not the case among Democrats. Among them, socialism is surging and progressives are especially likely to be down with it. Half of Democrats said they had a favorable view of socialism, and more than two-thirds of self-identified progressives said the same.
Whatever the case may be for “socialism” as a label, Dem-leaning voters don’t appear to have much of a problem with Bernie’s platform. Among the respondents to the Post-ABC poll, only 17 percent said Bernie was “too liberal,” and 62 percent of Democratic-leaning adults said his stance was “about right” ideologically.
Half of all Americans — Republican and Democrat — said Sanders’ embrace of socialism would make no difference in their vote. About 7 in 10 Democrats said his socialism wouldn’t make a difference in their vote.
And Bloomberg? Well, he’s only up there because of money. He has spent more in some states than all the other candidates combined. He’s a Republican light, He will appeal t swing voters, but he won’t bring out the youth.
And don’t get me started on the chances of a brokered convention.
THIS IS FRUSTRATING! But a debate is tonight. Maybe one of the better people will emerge.