Thomas Piketty recently asked a very valid question: “How should we interpret the incredible success of the ‘socialist’ Bernie Sanders in the American Primaries?’” He is not alone in asking this question. There is no doubt that the rise of Donald Trump to the top of the Republican primaries is impressive and has captured the media’s attention from the start of the campaign season. However, Trump has also obscured more the meaningful story of Sanders, who has not only given a serious challenge to Hillary Clinton, but who also has perhaps changed the future of the Democratic Party for many decades to come.
The road to the White House is always a multi-stage complex process which is both confusing and uncertain. Historically, every presidential election in the US of A offers competitiveness and unpredictability. But, once in every two decades or so, these elections create new directions for the future of US political landscape. As a matter of fact, virtually every modern presidential election has pitted an insurgent candidate with the populist appeal. These calls always give an alternative to a more centrist-minded or establishment view of the party.
Since declaring his bid for the White House in April of 2015, Sanders, who is, by the way, a self-stated Democratic Socialist, held massive elections rallies. However, from the beginning, there was a consensus among the political pundits that Sanders chances to become the Democratic nomination are close to nothing, and now numbers are there to prove it.
An independent senator from Vermont gets his support from Millennial and young Democrat voters. In his Wisconsin Democratic primary win, he has received 64 percent shares of the male votes which represent nearly half of the Democratic electorate. According to NBC News estimates, Sanders won the primary by maintaining massive support with young voters, winning 82 percent of the votes cast from those under age 30 and 73 percent of all Democrats under 45. Senator Clinton drew majority support from those ages 45 and older (56 percent, as compared to 43 percent for Sanders).
Interestingly, these millennial gather to listen to Sanders, who has a grumpy, plain-speaking demeanour and gives the same speech every time. His messages are deafening and clear, and put forth a plan to reinstate fiscal progressives and a high minimum wage. Similarly, he also wants to add a single-payer universal health care system and free higher education at public universities. These policies and approaches are very different from what Mrs. Clinton and the Democratic establishment are preaching.
The popularity and rise of Sanders, particularly among younger voters, have indeed raised eyebrows within the Democratic Party and have exposed the ideological differences in the Party. In 1992 when Bill Clinton won the elections the Democratic Party moved away from the left and became more moderate New Democrats. During the Obama years, the establishment gave multiple warnings about the Party’s tilt towards more populist ideas. But, it is evident now that they are on the defensive.
Recently, the Democratic think tank Third Way has warned all the candidates, including Hillary Clinton, “They risked personal and broadly shared electoral harm if they echoed Sanders’ populist message.” The appreciation of Socialist ideas of Sanders’ with the party’s future voters makes clear that the party is leaning towards more populist politics. It also demonstrates that Americans, especial the young, are worried about rising inequality and they are tired of status quo politics. Although it does not mean that the Democratic party will go towards the extreme left anytime soon, the leftist section of the party (which had become quite weak after Bill Clinton’s presidency) is now finding some room to breathe.