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(s)Elections See other (s)Elections Articles Title: Bernie Sanders, powered by diverse liberal coalition, forces a reckoning for Democrats Bernie Sanders, powered by diverse liberal coalition, forces a reckoning for Democrats Robert Costa, Philip Rucker 4 hrs ago Trump says he hopes Bernie Sanders doesn't get 'a rigged deal' Bernie Sanders has seized a commanding position in the Democratic presidential race, building a diverse coalition that is driving his liberal movement toward the cusp of a takeover of a major political party. The senator’s ascendancy, though years in the making, is forcing a sudden reckoning in the Democratic Party’s hierarchy, as centrist politicians and their wealthy benefactors grapple with the upheaval brought by an electorate not only hungry to defeat President Trump, but also clamoring for radical change. Following Sanders’s resounding victory in Saturday’s Nevada caucuses, and with polls showing him on the rise, Democrats are entering a season of open warfare over whether Sanders (I-Vt.) is equipped to beat Trump in what could be a brutal general election. The senator and his allies insist he could, but his detractors say he is too polarizing to win in November — and could severely cost Democrats in congressional or state races if Republicans use Sanders’s self-description as a democratic socialist to paint all Democrats as extreme. The Sanders insurgency is the culmination of grievances that have simmered for the past decade among liberals who say Washington has all but ignored the problems of income inequality, health-care access and climate change. “The party has shifted to the left, and I don’t think many of the more traditional, legacy leaders of the party got it,” said Andrew L. Stern, a longtime former president of the Service Employees International Union. “The good news for Bernie Sanders is, he’s like a broken clock. He’s been in the same place for 35 or 40 years in terms of his positions, and the times have found him.” A headstrong, 78-year-old senator, Sanders has galvanized his supporters with an unwavering commitment to their shared cause and forceful critiques of the “billionaire class.” They in turn see him, despite his unorthodox persona, as a weapon against a governing class that has failed them. On the campaign trail, there is an unusual intensity to Sanders’s performances, reminiscent of the energy that built around Trump on the right during his 2016 rise. Sanders has emerged as a movement candidate, with his rallies coast to coast drawing thousands of people who wait for hours to see him. Sanders’s stump speech is a liberal wish list — passing a Green New Deal to combat climate change; wiping out student debt and paying for it by taxing Wall Street; raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour; reforming immigration laws to protect the undocumented; nominating liberals to the Supreme Court and protecting abortion rights; and, of course, his signature health-care idea, Medicare-for-all, which has become a rallying cry on the left. “People who have been locked out of power are speaking up about corporate influence over the issues that matter in their lives,” said Abdul El-Sayed, a Sanders ally and liberal organizer who ran unsuccessfully for Michigan governor in 2018. “What you’re seeing is a necessary and natural readjustment in the Democratic Party.” a man standing on a stage in front of a crowd: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), with his wife Jane, waves to the crowd Saturday at a rally in El Paso. 1/4 SLIDES © Paul Ratje/AFP/Getty Images Sanders’s emphatic win in Nevada illustrated his potential to expand his coalition far beyond the ceiling of 25 percent or 30 percent that many party-establishment figures and commentators assumed he had. In Nevada, Sanders won with 29 percent of whites, 51 percent of Hispanics and 27 percent of blacks, according to entrance polls of Democratic caucus-goers. He won a staggering 65 percent of caucus-goers under 30 years old, and he carried every other age group except for caucus-goers over 65 years old, which former vice president Joe Biden won. “In Nevada, we have just put together a multigenerational, multiracial coalition which is going to not only win in Nevada, it’s going to sweep this country,” Sanders said at his rally in San Antonio on Saturday. “We are bringing our people together — black and white and Latino, Native American, Asian American, gay and straight,” Sanders added. “We are bringing our people together around an agenda that works for the working people of this country.” Sanders’s dominance among young people, his supporters say, signals his ability to energize this potentially important demographic in November. “Disregard electability,” said Isabel Lozoya, 19, a Texas State University student who drove for an hour on Saturday to see Sanders campaign in San Antonio. “It should be about picking somebody you really believe in as opposed to somebody you think other people will believe in.” The race for the nomination is just getting started and remains fluid, with a half-dozen contenders still running, although Sanders has clear momentum after winning Nevada and the New Hampshire primary, while finishing second in the Iowa caucuses by a tiny margin. The next primary is on Saturday in South Carolina, where the latest polls show Biden leading and Sanders running close behind. The Super Tuesday contests on March 3 may be decisive, with voters in California, Texas and 12 other states determining approximately one-third of the nearly 4,000 pledged delegates to be awarded by primaries and caucuses. Some other candidates have stepped up their attacks on Sanders in urgent hopes of blunting his rise. Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., has been one of the most aggressive, warning in a speech Saturday night that Sanders as the party standard-bearer could be disastrous for other Democrats on the November ballot. “Before we rush to nominate Senator Sanders in our one shot to take on this president, let us take a sober look at what is at stake for our party, for our values and for those with the most to lose,” said Buttigieg, who ran third in Nevada following a win in Iowa and a second-place finish in New Hampshire. Sanders is bracing for a harsher assault to come from his Democratic rivals, including at Tuesday night’s CBS News debate in South Carolina. “To finally be seeing it all start to catch on is powerful, but he knows they’re going to throw the kitchen sink at him. He’s a realist,” said Sanders’s friend Ben Cohen, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and a Vermont-based liberal activist. Some Democratic leaders are sounding the alarm about the party’s viability in the November election with Sanders atop the ticket. House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), an ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said Sunday that Sanders could jeopardize the party’s House majority. “I think it would be a real burden for us in these states or congressional districts that we have to do well in,” Clyburn said on ABC’s “This Week.” “If you look at how well we did the last time [in the 2018 midterm elections] and look at the congressional districts, these were not liberal or what you might call progressive districts. These were basically moderate and conservative districts that we did well in.” Poster Comment: Hillary stole the primary from Bernie in 2016. Seth Rich was the leaker and even his parents said that. Doctor at hospital said he should not have died from his wounds. He was another victim of the Clinton Crime Cult. And btw, when Hillary was at her daughters place in NYC, when she emerged, there were no secret service agents near her. This tells us it was a body double since no way Secret Service would not have been right next to her. Video at source. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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