The advent of President Obama seemed to produce 2 lib/Dem mindsets:
-Youngs/progressives: See? fundamental change IS possible-we just haven't gone big enough.
-Older/AA/regular-order Dems: Black POTUS & healthcare change broke ppls brains & produced Trump. Job 1=restore sanity.
-Youngs/progressives: See? fundamental change IS possible-we just haven't gone big enough.
-Older/AA/regular-order Dems: Black POTUS & healthcare change broke ppls brains & produced Trump. Job 1=restore sanity.
That breakdown explains the cleavage of the Democratic primary base along racial/generational lines. And amazingly the one thing most seem to agree upon on all sides of this divide is they don't quite think a registered Democrat can beat Trump. They're looking to indies or ex-GOP
And that's not even to get into the fact that a lot of what drives both Trumpism and Sanderism (and Warren support too) is the disappointment and anger of the white working class (and in Sanders' case a young black/brown working class too) who once wld be seen as solid Democrats.
And so really you have all of these affluent-up to billionaire white candidates duking it out over who can be the modern FDR. Is it the billionaire philanthropist, the Democratic socialist, the ex-Republican expert on bankruptcy & Wall Street greed, Obama's loyal veep or who?
There's a reason Sanders is holding on to his core support base even if it's smaller than in 2016: his core is that working class, young and "young at heart left" for whom a President Obama was the floor, not the ceiling. More "seasoned" Dems are not at all confident that's true.
Looked at that way it's not surprising Sandersites are so furious. They clearly felt 2016 was their chance to build the revolution post-Obama but regular order Dems refused to believe like those same skeptical were willing to believe with Obama. And they still refuse.
That's the divide. Now it plays out. And then no one knows what happens in November. Don't believe anyone who tells you they do.
