Sanders supporters are understandably excited by his surprise victory in
Michigan, but few take for granted that he will continue to build momentum for the
nomination. The corporate media and the DNC seem determined as ever to continue
promoting the myth that Clinton will be the inevitable Democratic candidate for
president. Despite the fact that her positions are largely out of step with the
Democratic mainstream, the rationalizations for voting for her remain persuasive
for a large proportion of the party faithful.
Bernie will need to take advantage of every opportunity to tap into that
segment of the electorate hungry for change.
While it may seem counterintuitive, Trump supporters may provide the
margin he needs for victory.
The consensus opinion on the left is that Trump’s appeal is based on his racist
positions on immigration and his Islamophobia, both of which attract the most
extreme right wingers who disproportionately support Trump. However, James
Robertson offers a
persuasive
argument that that is not the case. He concludes that Trump’s base is
composed of a wide spectrum of conservative voters who are tired of being taken
for granted by the lies of the corporate politicians who comprise the
establishment of the Republican Party. His powerful argument explains why Trump
continues to build support despite his wildly inconsistent views, many of which
contradict conservative dogma.
If Robertson’s thesis is correct, it suggests that Sanders and his supporters
have a unique opportunity to forge an alliance between left and right. With the
right approach, they could unite moderate dissidents across the political
spectrum around issues of common concern. While the idea will strike many as
far-fetched, it has also been suggested by at least one conservative blogger
who makes
a
strong argument for it. In addition,
as Sanders pointed out in the FOX debate, he was
reelected
by a nearly 3:1 margin in 2012 in the most rural state in the union. While
Vermont is exceptionally liberal for a rural, largely white population,
it
still has a significant proportion of conservatives.
While it remains to be seen how many conservatives would be willing to register
Democratic in the primaries in order to vote for Sanders over Clinton, there is
no doubt this is a demographic that Sanders would want on his side in the
general election. The more successful a primary effort to sway conservatives
who are developing doubts about Trump, the stronger will be the argument that
Sanders is the best candidate to prevail in the general election, despite the
assumption by many that his self-identification as a “socialist” will doom him.
It would be naïve to think this will be an easy task. The corporate media
remains a powerful force to reckon with. However, the more that Sanders and
Trump defy its predictions the clearer it will be that Americans will need to
tune out the echo chamber and learn to think for themselves. Should they face
off in the general election, they will present the clearest choice of what kind
of nation we want to be since the “Second Revolution” in 1800, when Jefferson
defeated Adams on the promise that ours would not be a government that dictated
to the people, but one that responded to the popular will.
Our goal as Americans should not be to assure that one or the other of the
Duopoly parties wins, but to elect a president who can best address our common
problems. We are at risk of leaving the next generation of Americans to be the
first to have a lower standard of living than their parents. Fortunately, the
media is performing at least one useful function that could help us change the
tide by electing a champion of the People: It is informing the Trump supporters
about why it would be so dangerous to elect a megalomaniac with no experience
in politics and little understanding of how to do anything but appeal to the
anger of his base. It is up to us to make them understand that they have an
alternative in an independent who shares their anger at the corrupt Duopoly establishment.
The key is to do what Sanders supporters have largely failed to do in trying to
convince Clinton supporters to adopt their point of view, which is to treat
their differences of opinion with respect.
That is not as hard as it seems. We are used to having these discussions
with others who consider themselves liberals and many of us have been shocked
at the anger that greets any criticism of the anointed heir to the Obama
presidency. It really shouldn’t be surprising that normally rational people get
upset when people who agree on goals agree acknowledge what seems obvious to
them: we cannot continue to accept the choice of corporate politicians in the
DNC and expect to ever achieve the goals of the progressive agenda. There is a simple reason that we need a
political revolution, but for some reason the message is not sinking in with
many of the Democratic Party faithful in the baby boomer generation. To
paraphrase Bill Clinton’s campaign slogan, “It’s the corruption, stupid!” That
is a non-ideological message progressives should be able to sell to
conservatives.
It’s easier to be patient when you go into a discussion expecting disagreement,
as long as you do not fall into the trap of expecting the other person to be
convinced on the spot. It’s a matter of planting the seeds and letting them
mature in an environment that is becoming increasingly hostile to both Trump’s
extremism and Clinton’s cynical corporatism. Only the most dedicated Clintonite
would argue that it is naively idealistic to worry about it the corruption of
the system. It is certainly not an attitude we are likely to get from Trump
supporters. We can expect wide agreement on this fundamental issue from
conservatives who have recognized that politicians claiming to represent them
are lying.
We are witnessing the fracturing of the façade of the Duopoly in the face of
its glaring hypocrisy. The success of Sanders and Trump in their respective
races has challenged the complacency of the corporate core of both major
parties. This is a moment of historic opportunity to not only unify the left
around a progressive agenda, but to gain support for it from many
self-identified conservatives. Doubters should remember that there is
historical precedent for this. Roosevelt was elected after a period of
Republican dominance that led to the Great Depression. It was that economic
pain that led Americans to challenge the simplistic beliefs they had bought into
by Republican corporatists during the relative prosperity of the 20s. In the
midst of our ongoing Great Recession, we should be able to do the same.
Stripped of ideological rhetoric, Sanders’ platform is a common sense approach
to getting America back on its feet.