Quote:
Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield
I still think when the serious history book is written, Bernie will have been the ultimate deciding factor. He was Trump’s co-cheerleader for populism. And populism turned the Democratic blue collar vote in the Rust Belt for Trump (because those folks liked Bernie’s candor, but couldn’t vote for a “communist.”)
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I think this is right.
A big question is why did he get away with it? Why did his message resonate among a certain profile of Democrats (disproportionately young, and among the older ones, overwhelmingly white and male)?
I think there are two main answers: First, he had incredible message discipline, he could say the same simple stupid thing 1000 times and sound sincere the 1001st time. He really dumbed it down. Second, he used his socialism schtick and mass rallies to brand himself as a shiny new penny, even though his core messages were all out of the immediate postwar labor unionist/democratic party playbook. Really, Hubert Humphrey was elected to the Senate on the Bernie platform. I love Hubert, but making him into a shiny new penny took great skill.
