Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Campaign 2020 First Bernie Sanders Thread 2020

This surprises me, I didn't think Sanders would drop out. That he would carry his campaign all the way to the convention as a platform for his ideas. Did Sanders move the Democratic Party to the left, I think he did some. I would say four years ago progressives made up somewhere between 20-25% of the Democratic Party faithful. That over the last four years they have increased to around 35%. The more moderate faction, the more Democratic Party traditionalist still have a majority. That could be changing, it probably is.

But the big question isn't so much about the Democratic Party faithful as it is with what we call swing voters, independents, those who aren't affiliated with either party. Those who are less partisan to being non-partisan. Has Sanders changed some of these folks thinking? Most independents which according to Gallup on 22 Mar make up 36% of the electorate. A lot of these so called swing voters became independents because their philosophy, ideology falls somewhere in-between the two major parties as the GOP has moved more to the right and the Democrats more to the left. Call it electability is probably the major reason why Biden has now won the Democratic nomination.

I wish Sanders well. One last thing, Sanders is a self described Democratic Socialist which doesn't play well among independents. In fact only 45% of all independents said they would think about voting for a socialist. The rest wouldn't regardless of the candidates.

Socialism and Atheism Still U.S. Political Liabilities


Now if someone else had professed Sanders ideas, someone who hadn't described themselves as a Democratic Socialist, his ideas probably would fly. A Biden, Klobuchar, Bloomberg, Steyer, Buttigieg, others of the more moderate views wouldn't have been stigmatized as being a socialist, a losing proposition come the general.

Who the messenger is sometimes make all the difference.