Reminder-- and this isn't just about Republicans vs DemocratsBernie's political revolution IS resonating. Economic royalism isn't. Even the Washington Post, economic royalism's biggest cheerleader among newspapers, was forced to admit after the way Bernie's revolution crushed the status quo conservatives in Nevada yesterday that Bernie won "in nearly every demographic group, allowing him to set down a marker in the first state with a significant share of nonwhite voters. Sanders expanded the electorate by attracting relatively large numbers of first-time caucus-goers, providing momentum as the race shifts into a critical stretch over the next 10 days. He prevailed among those with college degrees and those without; those living in union and nonunion households; and in every age group except those over 65. He won more than half of Hispanic caucus-goers-- almost four times as much support as his nearest rival, former vice president Joe Biden-- and even narrowly prevailed among those who identified as moderate or conservative. Despite attacks on his health proposal by the powerful Culinary Union, he won in caucus sites filled with union members."It's almost like Democratic grassroots voters are abandoning their tainted and corrupt leadership. About time! Early this morning the the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Elections Research Center released a new poll showing Bernie winning in Michigan primary (just as he had in 2016), the Pennsylvania primary and the Wisconsin primary.Remember, Biden pretends delegate-rich Pennsylvania is his home state instead of tiny Delaware where he lived and based his entire career. Bernie is even beating him there! The primary is April 28.
• Bernie- 25%• Status Quo Joe- 20%• Bloomberg- 19%• Mayo Pete- 12%• Elizabeth- 9%• Klobuchar- 5%
Wisconsin is Bernie country again, of course. It was a big state for him in 2016 and looks like it will be an even bigger state for him in 2020. The primary is April 7.
• Bernie- 30%• Status Quo Joe- 13%• Bloomberg- 13%• Elizabeth- 12%• Mayo Pete- 12%• Klobuchar- 9%
By the way, that poll also shows Bernie beating Trump in head-to-head match-ups in each of the crucial battleground states that Hillary and the Democratic establishment managed to lose in 2016:
• Michigan- 48 to 41%• Pennsylvania- 47 to 45%• Wisconsin- 46 to 44%
Ryan Lizza, writing for Politico this morning, was definitive: Sanders eviscerates the conventional wisdom about why he can't win. Lizza is no revolutionary but even he had to admit that Nevada exposed the opposition to Bernie "as weak, divided, and grasping at increasingly tenuous arguments about their viability." But his main point-- and his most important one-- is that Bernie "laid waste not just to his five main rivals but also to every shard of conventional wisdom about the Democratic presidential primaries." And it wasn't just the anti-working class media establishment that fell; it was also the anti-working class Democratic establishment that got flushed down the toilet. The leaders of powerful Culinary Union, went to war against Bernie over Medicare for All and were tasked by state party boss and anti-Bernie fanatic Harry Reid and by the DNC with weakening him. But the union's grassroots went with Bernie not their overseers. He won 34% of caucus-goers from union households, beating pretend union-supporter Status Quo Joe and all of his other rivals.Lizza explained how Bernie's campaign "exploded a lot of myths," basically the bullshit the anti-working class pundits and Democratic establishment has been floating about his campaign to derail it. If you watch MSNBC, you can probably repeat all of them with ease.
He was said to have a ceiling of 30% or so. Remarkably, against a much larger field of candidates Sanders is poised to come close to the same level of support as he did in 2016 in a one-on-one race against Hillary Clinton, to whom he lost 47%-53%. (He was at 46% with a quarter of precincts reporting as of this writing.) He was said to be unable to attract anyone outside his core base. But he held his own with moderate voters (22%) and won across every issue area except voters who cared most about foreign policy, who went with Biden.All of this makes the results of the Nevada caucuses, which in the past have not been treated with the same importance as the contests in the three other early states-- Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina-- matter more this year. They have helped settle lingering questions about Sanders' appeal.Pete 3 by Nancy OhanianThe momentum of Buttigieg, who was Sanders' strongest opponent in Iowa and New Hampshire, stalled out in Nevada. He slipped into third place, well behind Biden. Long-shot candidacies need to continue to surge forward with unexpected results to overcome doubts. But Buttigieg’s success in Iowa and New Hampshire was not enough to change the minds of enough people in Nevada. A victory here for him would have been catalytic, but the Sanders blowout has halted his rise. (He is still likely to be second behind Sanders in the delegate race, but the early states are all about momentum, not delegates.)
Let's wrap this up with two narrative versions of relevant Twitter threads from this morning, one from former insurance industry executive Wendell Potter and one from The Times' Paul Krugman. Potter first:
Tonight’s results in Nevada confirm something momentous that would have shocked me when I worked as a health insurance executive: Medicare for All is hugely popular & the winning position for Democrats. Between Iowa, New Hampshire and now Nevada, this is a fact. Here’s why:Entrance polls out of Nevada show 6 in 10 want a single-payer system. Entrance and exit polls from Iowa & New Hampshire found 6 in 10 voters in both states support Medicare for All. All this after millions were spent by my old industry trying to scare voters away from it.In Nevada, two top candidates, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, both put deceptive ads on the air attacking Medicare for All. They campaigned explicitly against Medicare for All. And they lost by 30 points.With these three state results in, we now see that Medicare for All is popular in the Midwest, Northeast, and the West, all with different, diverse populations. Medicare for All can win anywhere-- as the primary's front-running campaign demonstrates.We know the health insurance industry and its lobbyists won’t quit trying to scare the public. But politicians who parrot their talking points do so at their own peril. It's now clear: Medicare For All is the winning position in the 2020 Democratic primary. And opposing it is not.
And Krugman, the NY Times centrist economist who has been an opponent to much of Bernie's platform for years and who still opposes him but is willing to make the case for Bernie in the general election against Trump, unlike many of our MSNBC "friends," who-- largely to protect their tax breaks-- prefer Trump over Bernie:
Well, Bernie Sanders is now the clear favorite for the Democratic nomination. Lots of things to say about that, but the most important is that he is NOT a left-leaning version of Trump. Even if you disagree with his ideas, he's not a wannabe authoritarian ruler.America under a Sanders presidency would still be America, both because Sanders is an infinitely better man than Trump and because the Democratic Party wouldn't enable abuse of power the way Republicans have.And if you're worried about his economic agenda, what's your concern, exactly? That he'll run budget deficits? Trump is doing that already-- and the economic effects have been positive.I'm more concerned about (a) electability and (b) if he does win, squandering political capital on unwinnable fights like abolishing private health insurance. But if he's the nominee, it's the job of Dems to make him electable if at all possible.To be honest, a Sanders administration would probably leave center-left policy wonks like me out in the cold, at least initially. But this is no time for self-indulgence and ego trips. Freedom is on the line.
Marianne Williamson has gotten to know-- and generally like-- all the candidates running for president. Once she suspended her campaign, all the remaining candidates have reached out to her for her endorsement. She has a tendency to see what's good about each one-- and she was busy working on helping congressional candidates with platforms akin to her own... but this afternoon, she made her decision. Marianne Williamson is definitely feeling the Bern and has endorsed Bernie's campaign for the presidency!
