Live from Nephelokokkugia: : There is no Bernie Sanders movement: " feels true that Bernie Sanders has sparked a new movement of the left...
...But it’s not.... Sanders has simply reconstituted the usual liberal coalition that backs insurgents in a Democratic primary. He has done so with incredible success. But a movement? There never was a Bernie Sanders movement.... That there’s precedent for Bernie Sanders isn’t trivia or a means to dismiss him. Far from it.... Remove his ‘socialist’ branding, which even he defines as little more than an updated form of New Deal liberalism, and you’re left with a candidate who strongly resembles other insurgent candidates... from George McGovern to Jerry Brown to Bill Bradley to Howard Dean... ‘authenticity’ as contrasted with the ‘calculated’ positioning of mainstream candidates... the ideological left, a factional figure who seeks to pull the party in his direction, or pry concessions from a reluctant establishment. And his support comes from the usual places: Young people (especially college students), white liberals, and the most ideological actors within the Democratic Party.... His predecessors also framed their campaigns as movements—grassroots efforts to challenge the establishment and the grab the reins of the Democratic Party from monied interests and other villains....
[Previous insurgent] candidates brought unapologetically liberal positions to the table... appealed to a narrow slice of the Democratic electorate... white and disproportionately college-educated... the core of ideological liberalism within mainstream politics.... Like Dean or Bradley before for him, Sanders is a factional candidate of ideological liberal Democrats.... The difference... is that, with the collapse of conservative white Democrats in the South and elsewhere, those liberal whites make up a larger share of the party.... The simple fact is that there aren’t enough liberals to elect politicians outside of bastions in California and in the Northeast, and there never have been....
Coalitions are tricky things.... Like its predecessors, the Sanders insurgency is an attempt to force the question, to declare ‘we deserve a louder say’ to the moderate stalwarts, corporate interests, unions, and activist groups that constitute the Democratic Party.... [But] the Democratic Party isn’t yet an ideological party, and many of its voters don’t put ideology or good-government reform at the top of their lists. You see this in how insurgent candidates, Sanders included, tend to flail when faced with black voters, one of the largest constituencies in the Democratic Party...
