Bernie Sander’s run for the White House will be a lot of fun, but he’s not going to win the Democratic presidential nomination.
It’s official America, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who is technically and independent but caucuses with the Democrats, is running for president! This poses an interesting question, how serious should our political media take a self-described “democratic socialist” in his quest for the Democratic nomination for the presidency?
Some writers are demanding that Sanders be put on equal footing with Hillary Clinton, but in all honesty that is just a silly request. Bernie Sanders just isn’t a plausible nominee for the current Democratic Party and journalists who want to educate their audiences shouldn’t treat him as such. As Jonathan Bernstein put it:
No self-described socialist has come anywhere close to a Democratic nomination. Nor has the Democratic Party chosen anyone who doesn’t consider himself a member of the Democratic Party in the first place.
We don’t have to wait until the primaries and caucuses to know Sanders has no realistic path to the nomination. It isn’t up for grabs the way it is on the Republican side. No candidate has ever put together as impressive a lineup of endorsements from party leaders this early as Hillary Clinton has this year, and such endorsements (unlike early polling results) are excellent predictors of nomination results.
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That’s exactly right. Now it’s true that in politics “anything can happen” but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the political media needs to treat every candidate equally in terms of who can win. It’s possible that the Minnesota Timberwolves will be national champions next year, but considering they finished the 2015 NBA season in last place it’s safe to say that they won’t. And any sports writer who wants to be taken seriously shouldn’t deny that reality.
That of course doesn’t mean that the political media should ignore Sanders altogether. As a leftwing protest candidate focusing on economic inequality his campaign could have an impact in terms of what the Democratic Party stands for in the future. Or as Bernstein also argues:
Sanders is part of the story of the campaign, in the same way Ron Paul was a serious part of the 2012 and 2008 fights for the Republican nomination despite having no realistic chance of winning. Protest candidates who have real constituencies are part of how parties define themselves during nomination contests.
So reporters and writers should feel free to write about Sanders, but it would be misleading to their readers to argue that he stands any sort of reasonable chance of actually winning. Protest candidates can be a lot of fun to follow and can have a long-term impact on our politics (Ralph Nader anyone?), but Hillary almost certainly won the Democratic nomination already.
Of course, the Republican field is different matter entirely.
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Photo by Rich Pedroncelli/AP
Though I realize some will wonder about my sanity, but I truly believe if Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul were to lock themselves in a room with 6 pack of beer, a good pizza and joint they could come out as independent 3rd party with a kick butt platform and deliver true hope for the middle class of America.
Yes, but this would be true of any two people you lock into a room with pizza, beer and 420
The common denominator is not the people, but the pizza, beer and 420.