Sanders could cut through establishment propaganda to secure a big win today

Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden
Ed Sykes


Bernie Sanders has been the frontrunner in the early stages of the race to become Democratic Party candidate for November’s US presidential election. And today, on what voters know as ‘Super Tuesday‘, he could secure an important win in a contest where establishment forces are doing their best to defeat him.

Former vice president Joe Biden will be Sanders’ main rival. Long the favourite of billionaire backers, Biden has so far had a weak ground game and lacked enthusiastic support from ordinary people. But he received a boost in recent days when two other billionaire-backed candidates dropped out and backed him after his victory in South Carolina. Sanders, meanwhile, relies on massive, enthusiastic, grassroots support, and has zero billionaire backers.

Whether Sanders wins big in the 14 Super Tuesday states or not, however, will depend on how well his progressive message has managed to cut through vicious establishment propaganda and bias.

Cutting through elitist propaganda

Many independent analysts believe Sanders is the best bet to beat Donald Trump. Academic and author Robert Reich, for example, recently put out a video arguing precisely that. And at the same time, he took down the key elitist attacks on Sanders, arguing that:

  1. Sanders has a common-sense platform. US establishment forces have long demonised the word ‘socialism’, but Sanders is a moderate who simply wants public money and power to serve ordinary people rather than the rich and powerful.
  2. Sanders can beat Trump. Reich stresses that “the best way for Democrats to defeat Trump’s fake anti-establishment populism is with the real thing”. Why? Because “more and more Americans feel politically disempowered and economically insecure”. And the data consistently seems to back that up, with Sanders seeming to be the candidate most likely to beat Trump by the biggest margin.
  3. The establishment challenges Sanders on how he’d pay for his public investment plans; but Reich says it’s “funny that they never ask how we’ll pay for endless wars, or bailouts, tax cuts, and subsidies for the top 1%”. He also points out that Sanders has already detailed his spending proposals; and that universal public healthcare (‘Medicare for All’) would save both hundreds of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives every year in the long run.
  4. Sanders has a long record of working with Senate colleagues to achieve change, and Democrats have a better chance of taking control of the senate “if Bernie’s political revolution continues to surge around America”.
  5. Sanders’ age shouldn’t matter; “having the right values” should be more important to voters.
  6. It’s clear that Sanders “unites people from all walks of life” in his “multi-racial, multi-generational coalition”. People who say that ‘moderates’ (i.e. billionaire-backed elitists like Biden) appeal to most voters, meanwhile, are “woefully out of touch”.

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Also… look at the alternative

The main challenger to Sanders, meanwhile, is the lukewarm Biden; a man who offers the same old centrist posturing that failed to beat Donald Trump in 2016. So it’s also worth looking at why voters shouldn’t pick Biden:

With so much at stake in this election, many see a ‘we can’t do better‘ Biden candidacy as a major risk:

Sanders is a real alternative

Although it’s easy to debunk the attacks on Sanders and expose Biden’s massive weaknesses, establishment forces won’t stop trying to derail the momentum Sanders very clearly has. They’ll keep dishonestly smearing the common-sense choice to take on Trump, largely because he represents a real threat (however moderate) to the selfish interests of elitist warmongers and billionaire grifters.

Fortunately, Sanders supporters have passion and drive. And if their efforts succeed in cutting through establishment propaganda, Sanders could come out of the “crucial” Super Tuesday vote in a very strong position to take on Trump in November.

Featured image via Flickr – Gage Skidmore / Flickr – LBJ Library

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