Bernie vs. Trump
Bernie Sanders is a threat to the establishment. Despite being the most popular politician in America, he’s receiving the worst punishment that the establishment can mete out — he’s being ignored. This is not by accident.
An independent and self-described Democratic Socialist, poll after poll after poll after poll … shows that Sanders is the most popular politician in the United States. He enjoys broad support among the middle class and independents. Importantly, more young voters voted for Sanders than Trump and Clinton combined.
His 2016 campaign infrastructure is still in place and, if anything, it is now bigger and stronger. With the Sanders Institute, his restless campaigning, and broad social media appeal, he is in place to launch a formidable 2020 campaign.
But to look at mass media, you would never know it.
The media’s power comes from viewership, achieved by touting horse-race politics, and distractive non-issues. Covering actual issues might impact advertisers and shareholders, which is a corporate no-no. For instance, Media Matters recently found that by non-coverage, and by featuring deniers, mass media is failing miserably covering climate change.
The same can be said of their coverage of Bernie Sanders. The media systematically ignored the Sanders campaign in 2015 (although what coverage he did get was generally favorable), and reliably underplayed it thereafter. As his support grew, it became increasingly difficult to justify the lack of coverage. But they ignored him nonetheless.
Today, as ably pointed out in a Spectator piece by Michael Tracey, the political and media elite continue to systematically ignore Bernie Sanders. By most metrics, he should be the 2020 frontrunner, but he is not. He receives patronizing nods for “changing the conversation,” and vague acknowledgements coupled with dismissive prognostications, but no one in Washington really wants to talk about Bernie Sanders.
Why is that so? Why is it that the man who almost single-handedly got Jeff Bezos to raise Amazon’s minimum wage to $15 gets no love?
The answer is simple: it’s all about the donors.
A friend who is a well-placed fundraiser in the Democratic Party pointed out the obvious: it takes money to run a campaign. And everyone knows that, if you want money, you go to rich people. It’s a mindset that is deeply imbedded in the political establishment. Policy is window dressing. Today, Democratic members of Congress are expected to spend half their day in a phone bank, raising funds. Democrats and Republicans alike are influence peddlers, dangling their appointments so that the billionaires may see What I Can Do For You.
Despite their pearl clutching, the Democratic Party establishment loves Donald Trump. He marginally moved a few points of the voting electorate into their column. He provides sufficient outrage to keep donor checks coming. His authoritarian march to the right also gives them cover to continue supporting the interests of their corporate donors.
Of course, no politician would admit to being bought, but after Citizen’s United, the last remnant of restraint has been removed from political spending. Washington D.C. is now a bazaar that puts the Home Shopping Network to shame.
Bernie Sanders is a direct threat to the Democratic Party establishment, in a way that Donald Trump can never be. That is because Bernie Sanders is a threat to their donors. While donors and the media are trying to determine who are their Rising Stars™ they talk policy in vague, easily-avoidable platitudes. Bernie is direct. He plainly advocates Wall Street reform, Medicare For All, paid public college tuition, immediate action on climate change, and so forth.
Each one of Bernie’s policy proposals threatens the business interests of the rich. That is precisely why people love him, and the establishment hates him. The money problem will never go away, but Bernie’s 2016 campaign showed that millions of small donors are at least as powerful as a few hundred big donors. Big donor support comes from influence peddling. Small donor support comes from good policy. Bernie’s campaign is the moral equivalent of war on big money, and for now, both parties are keeping a wary eye on how far he goes.
The race has only just begun. The progressive movement is growing, and it’s becoming restless. “Change takes time,” is the cautionary advise generously meted out by the universe brains in Washington. Nelson Mandela looked at it differently: “It always seems impossible until it is done.”
