Bernie Sanders’ stunning victory in Michigan last week may become a mere asterisk in the history of presidential politics on Tuesday, as he seems less than likely to repeat his good fortune in any of the big states voting tomorrow.
For whatever reason the Vermont senator pulled off his surprise win in the Great Lakes State – and some of the theories don’t hold water – he is not helped by his increasingly agitated state on the stump, or his supporters’ willingness to mimic the rag-tag Occupy Wall Street protests of 2011.
Much to the chagrin of Sanders loyalists, unless the polls are wildly off the mark again on Tuesday as they were in Michigan, Hillary Clinton is likely to pick up a trove of delegates in big, key states and suddenly return the senator’s campaign back to quixotic status.
Real Clear Politics reports the polling average in Ohio puts Clinton ahead by eight points, and she’s up by 30 points in Florida. Illinois, a deep Blue State that is certain to favor the Democratic nominee in November, appears to be a tossup. But North Carolina, a hugely important Purple State in the general election, favors Clinton by 24 points, on average.
Meanwhile, the arrogant “Bernie Bros” who belittle Sanders’ critics ignore the fact that many liberal economists and lawmakers view Sanders’ policy proposals as unworkable and built upon outlandish assumptions. Some detractors on the left now say that the senator’s presidential campaign is based on “intellectual dishonesty.”
Worse yet, after the violence on the campaign trail of the last several days, some of Sanders’ most ardent young backers seem ready to turn the Donald Trump rallies into street fights. With the assistance of MoveOn instigators, the Trump events in recent days have been disrupted by chants of “Bernie, Bernie, Bernie” followed by shouts of “Trump, Trump, Trump.”
When liberal protesters muddle the message about Trump authoritarianism by turning the standoff into a contest of opposing cults of personality, then their cause is losing.
Before the Trump rally scuffles in North Carolina, Chicago and St. Louis, Janell Ross of The Washington Post wrote about the nasty tone of the Sanders supporters.
On the Post’s “The Fix” blog, Ross warned that her experiences demonstrated the Sanders faithful “behave in ways that are difficult to square with their claims to progressive politics and building a more inclusive and egalitarian society.”
In fact, Ross, who is black, said that The Fix has received a steady stream of social media and email responses from Bernie backers that “use a variety of curse words and insults typically reserved for women. More than one has suggested that I deserve to become the victim of a sex crime. … They insist that black voters are dumb or that I have a personal obligation to help black voters see the error of their Clinton-voting ways. It is vile. And it stands in sharp contrast to the claim that no portion of Sanders supporters are angry people who sometimes engage in or embrace bigotry.”
