BOTH PARTIES HAD BETTER TAKE HEED OF THE SUCCESSES OF BERNIE SANDERS

…Just one example of the crowds attending a Bernie Sanders speech.

There’s a reason that Bernie’s crowds are larger than those of either party’s speakers.

I hope all those running for their party’s nomination take note as to why Bernie Sanders is drawing record crowds wherever he shows up to speak.  This 73 year old Independent Senator of Vermont, is running as a Democrat, but he should not be taken for granted by either party.

As to being an experienced politician, Bernie was the mayor of Burlington, Vermont for three terms, and Burlington is the largest city in the state.  He was a Representative in the House for 16 years before he became an Independent US Senator in 2007.

But the fact is that of all the high-profile candidates for both parties, Bernie has been drawing not only the largest crowds in every venue, his crowds have also consisted of the exact age and type that all the candidates would die to have. Even though Sanders is older than Hillary Clinton, Sanders has a very strong appeal for the younger, more liberal, more idealistic Democrats than the Clinton campaign has shown. If Hillary could learn to connect with them, along with the women’s and the minority vote, Hillary could virtually be guaranteed to win the White House.

The area that Hillary had better come to understand is that the general public wants to hear and believe in what Bernie has to say.  The other Democrats that have announced that they are running such as Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb or Lincoln Chafee, they have not become the “non-Hillary Clinton” alternative for the Democrats.  That position has gone to Bernie.

 

It has gone to him because he is talking about what they want to hear, which as an example is: to be critical of Wall Street, to break up the big banks and to support single-payer health care.  And in comparison to Hillary, Bernie had voted against the 2003 invasion of Iraq, while Clinton, then a New York senator, voted for it, even though she now says that vote was a mistake.

So, do I think that Bernie will take over as the Democratic choice over Hillary, as Obama did over her in 2008?

No, I think if Hillary continues to follow and support some of the more liberal programs that Bernie and his massive crowds support, I think Hillary will still secure the nomination.  In fact, I think that’s exactly why Bernie decided to get into the race.

Bernie understands that the American public has demonstrated that one of the reasons that crazy Donald Trump has been receiving support, he many times says what people want to hear.  But Bernie also speaks in plain language as does Trump.  However, he doesn’t use “focus groups” to test out his possible responses to voter’s questions. 

 

The difference between Bernie and Trump is that compared to Trump, Bernie tells the truth and he makes more sense.  Where Trump is a well-dressed, slick salesman, Bernie is the exact opposite.  Bernie wouldn’t know a “focus group” from a Tupperware party.  The most common description of Bernie today is “rumpled”, but it’s not because his suits are wrinkled.  It’s that he is exactly what you see.  He answers your questions openly and truthfully and that’s why he stands out when compared to other politicians, especially the Republicans.

Bernie has been compared to Senator Eugene McCarthy.  He was the Democrat that did so well in the primaries back in 1968. McCarthy was the Minnesota senator that opposed the Vietnam War.  This position gave him the total support of most US college campuses.  McCarthy totally stunned the leaders of the Democratic Party when he received 42% of the vote in the 1968 New Hampshire primary.  The final result was, that the then leading incumbent Democratic President, Lyndon Johnson, he was forced to pull out of the presidential race.

No, I don’t see anything like this occurring in the 2016 election.

But I do think that all the candidates had better look at the reception that Bernie Sanders is getting and they need to take some lessons from it.  Bernie will not be the Democratic nominee.  He has no real national organization, and where Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton have raised $50 to $100 million for their campaigns since last April, Bernie only raised $15 million.

But in the key states of the first caucus and first primaries, Bernie’s speeches have drawn the attention and much larger crowds than any of the speakers of either party.  Bernie will definitely make an impression in any future debates.

There is a reason that the younger voters, the female voters and the minority voters are showing up for Bernie’s speeches.

They are sending an important message for the 2016 election.  All the potential nominees of both parties seriously need to take heed.

Copyright G.Ater  2015