Trump and Sanders agree on... almost literally nothing. People in Florida voting on a state-wide minimum wage is different from a Federal min wage. Voting on a state wide min wage increase absolutely does not compare to all the many, many big expensive things Bernie proposed.
Additionally even if Bernie made it through the primaries you're going to see the world's easiest propaganda campaign against him. "Bernie the SOCIALIST" literally jacks itself off when Bernie calls himself a "Democratic Socialist". I would have loved to see a Sanders presidency but the guy would have been absolutely shredded in a fight against Trump.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/254120/less-half-vote-socialist-president.aspx
You know it's bad when Americans would rather vote for a gay black Muslim than a socialist.
I think Myzozoa (and others like me who envision a DemSoc win) is right in a very narrow sense that if given a robust democratic system, and "fair" playing field where the merits of the ideas and the character of individuals could be to some degree properly assessed by the citizenry-- I do think an FDR style 40+ states map would be possible, and that a candidate like Sanders running on a fundamentally democratic socialist message (but perhaps more stalwart in message and more antagonistic to the Democratic leadership) could win big in that context. Maybe their presentation style/messaging would need to be more like Tulsi's patriotism or Yang's humanism.
We're talking about the comments section of a Joe Rogan podcast where countless centrists and right-wingers express shock at listening to Bernie and thinking about how reasonable, or at least empathetic and genuine and not crazy he is. Bernie could win if the entire media ecosystem and voting infrastructure was that.
But after watching the Dem primary, I have doubts as to whether it's actually possible in the real world. Not just because "Americans dumb, socialists bad"-- but because of what we saw in the UK, where-- forget the tories, or lib-dems-- even much of the Labour apparatus itself that Corbyn ostensibly ran was pocketing money from special interests and working overtime behind the scenes to ensure a Tory victory. Scandals, leaks, party funds allocated to safe elections seats, the media...
...even if Bernie became the candidate it would probably be impossible for him to win if the entire party infrastructure was simultaneously trying its best to lose, and allied with a media ecosystem also intent on making Sanders lose. The primary gave the opportunity for a leap-frog forward in the nerve center of global capitalism against the backdrop of a ticking clock against global catastrophe...
but regardless of deadlines in face of climate crisis, the actual political physics of realizing a successful democratic socialist project in the United States seems impossible without genuine transformation in hearts and minds of large parts of the electorate; requiring much more actual outreach in communities, more struggles for justice on streets, more inclusive messaging of solidarity across different groups of the non-oligarchy, and unfortunately... much more human suffering before a wider proportion of the population actually becomes more open to being critical of capitalism.
In that context, the Sanders campaign did a whole lot-- it's still a massively losing battle for avoiding climate crisis or the threat of greater empowered fascism, but we'd be much worse off without it.
