With the 2020 campaign around the corner, Senator Bernie Sanders announced that he would be a candidate for the second time after 2016 when he shocked the political establishment with his radical democratic and social ideas. Often described as a democratic socialist, which is a great weakness and strength for him, this new paradigm shift is evident in the spectre of almost all of the candidates from the Democratic Party.
The American public is more divided than ever, and it seems that this spurred into previously unimaginable life ideas. But before we get into it, we should probably explain what this means for the senator himself. According to Sanders, being described as a democratic socialist is not being tied to Marxist views and that this term in basic translation means a ‘fair deal’ for all Americans in a wealthy country. Sanders platform includes broad-based reforms, campaign finance reform, free tuition at public universities, and single-payer healthcare amount many others.
He is also making a parallel with Roosevelt who was back then described as a ‘socialist’ and yet he brought the most significant reform progress for the everyday American. It is basically returning to the liberal-democratic welfare-state capitalism. This plan would cost a lot and much of it Sanders said will be financed from raising taxes for the wealthy. All of this created high energy and ideas that stuck, which is evident from the midterms and the newest Congress stars who are supporting these ideas.
Now let us see the Democratic candidates and is this campaign going to be all in for the progressives. Currently, there are two camps, the far left (Sanders, Harris, Warren, Booker, and Gillibrand) which are backing all these ideas with minor differences. This encompasses government healthcare, higher taxes, new radical energy policy and much more.
In the other camp are the center-left candidates (Biden, Brown, Bloomberg, Klobuchar- if they decide to run) who favor a more moderate and center policy-oriented presidency. They are claiming that they can attract the moderate Republicans and the undecided which will give them the necessary edge for defeating Trump in the election.
But if Sanders in the past was an outsider with new and radical ideas that seems not to be the case anymore because he managed to shift the attention of these challenges and the number of candidates accepting this platform is a clear indicator for a significant change in the Democratic Party. The possibility for nominating a candidate running on such agenda is more than evident. Such candidate and will have to address the moderates and the undecided to win the swing states.
Bernie has the recognition and the ability to raise support better than any other candidate and after his announcement, the DSA membership started polling membership for a possibility of backing the senator stating that he is the only candidate considering endorsing. But he has a few disadvantages as well because he is not the fresh new candidate and the other is being his old age. Maybe his audience will shift to more modern and younger alternatives which are more or less are running on the same platform. This will mean that will have to convince once again the Millennials if he wants to stand a chance.
Also, another vulnerability for him is the black voters and the party-loyalists where he has big competition who will surely outperform him. The biggest concern for each of this candidates will be how are they going to stand up to President Trump, and this seems to be the top priority for the Democratic establishment more than any ideas presented from every one of them. The current state of the economy is stable and overall in Mr Trump’s presidency was performing very well, which will be another challenge which needs to be addressed properly.
The previous campaign raised not only left and progressive ideas but also stereotypes, the alt-right and hardcore views that are difficult and present a new political reality. The only way for Democrats to have a standing chance will be to acknowledge this new reality and find the strongest candidate who can explain how these divisive policies are not the future. During CNN’s televised event Senator Bernie Sanders said: “I go not only into communities which are progressive or Democratic—we head out to Trump country.”
