Bernie Sanders

Perhaps the most leftist candidate in the presidential race, Bernie hopes to recreate the entire economic world of this country. From the moment he announced his campaign for president it was clear Bernie would once again lead the pack. He raised a stunning 6 million dollars within 24 hours from 250 thousand individual small donors, 40% of which were new donors. In order to win the presidency, however, Sanders has to defeat the substantial competition. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will both lead the centrist wave in hopes to break the progressive front Sanders is creating. There is also, of course, his two biggest problems, 1. The fact that the entire establishment is against him and 2. The fact he is a self-declared socialist. Within the 48 hours of his announcement the Washington Post (Owned by Jeff Bezos, a Sanders opponent) released 4 attacks on Bernie, other outlets followed in their footsteps and released their own hit pieces against the Vermont senator. This makes Sanders an outlier in his party similar to Trump in his own primaries in 2016. Depending on how much the establishment favors a centrist candidate over Bernie will heavily impact his chances at winning. There’s also the problem of socialism constantly leering over Sanders during both this primary and the 2016 primary. In order for Sanders to win he has to both unite progressives and win over a lot of more moderate or more independent democrats. However the fact that many less informed people believe that he’s a hardcore socialist who wants to destroy capitalism will be a problem in the coming election. Despite Sanders only being a socialist by ethics and being moderate compared to the other leftists of the world, endless comparisons have been brought up by both conservative and establishment democrat media. He does have a solid record barring the socialist aura around him. Unlike candidates like Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, and even Joe Biden Bernie has had an almost spotless career because he has always stuck to the same issues, something which voters strongly sympathize with.Bernie’s win really depends on whether he can unite progressives and more moderate Democrats with his popular policies while fending off the centrists of the democratic party. Many forget that Bernie’s policies are actually popular among independents and even Trump supporters. His trade policy reflects protectionist values that even Donald Trump praised. His foreign policy is extremely popular among libertarians and the working class while obviously, his social policies are popular among the common people.Considering how quickly the country is changing and how close he came in 2016 he stands the best chance at capturing the Democratic nomination.