Jazz Shaw makes a pretty compelling case:
“I think we will get some endorsements, but I think it’s very clear to say that Secretary Clinton is the candidate of most of the members of Congress, is the candidate of the Democrat establishment,” Mr. Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Mr. Sanders, who is challenging Mrs. Clinton for the 2016 Democrat presidential nomination, added that many voters want a candidate willing to challenge the establishment.
“Secretary Clinton has long ties with many of the Democrats in Congress so it should not be surprising,” he said. “But I think what is equally interesting is the fact that all over this country, ordinary people, working people, elderly people are moving in our direction because they do want a candidate to take on the establishment.”
Are you noticing a word showing up over and over again in this discussion? It’s “the E word,” but I thought the GOP owned the copyright on that one. Apparently not, since Bernie has his own army of supporters in the liberal, Elizabeth Warren segment of the base and they’re not being shy about saying it either. Liberal site Crooks and Liars has the video, along with a rather curious explanation of “the Sanders effect” on the Democrat primary. It may sound familiar to many of you who typically watch GOP politics.
As Sanders rightfully noted, of course the Democrat establishment is going to support a member of their own party, but his message is resonating with their voters. Hillary Clinton would be wise to just take a page out of Sanders’ playbook and get out there and campaign and make her case to the voters, rather than sending surrogates out to attack him and alienate the [communist] base of the party.
There are two rather obvious differences between Senators Cruz and Sanders in this context: (1) the Democrat grassroots, as Mr. Shaw dutifully points out, does not tend to lose their minds and forfeit elections by staying home instead of voting if their party doesn't nominate an ideologically "pure" candidate, and it's unlikely that they would sever that fraying cord of sanity even if the Ugly Dutchess does get past Weekend Bernie; and (2) Sanders is in a much better position to wage an anti-"establishment" primary campaign than Cruz is. The Democrat race is already functionally a binary (one-on-one) contest, whereas Ted Cruz is drowning in rivals and competitors not a few of whom are rugby-scrumming him for that gimmick.
And, of course, "that gimmick" tends to be a lot less successful in the dynastic GOP than it does in the "charismatic outsider"-centric Party of The One anyway.
Indeed, you could actually say that both Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders are ripping off Barack Obama's schtick, just as Hillary Clinton is that of House Bush.
Which is another reason why it's working a lot better for Bernie than it is for Ted.
No wonder Senator Cruz is really running for vice president.
No comments:
Post a Comment