Let's Start With A Little Horserace Stuff Today

Balls by Nancy Ohanian

Polling by Survey USA shows any Democrat-- other than Steyer who ties him and Tulsi or Klobuchar who would lose-- would beat Trump. Head-to-head matchups among registered voters, although Bernie does the best against him:

• Bernie v Trump-- 52% to 43% (Bernie wins by 9)
• Status Quo Joe v Trump-- 50% to 43% (Biden wins by 7)
• Bloomberg v Trump-- 49% to 42% (Bloomberg wins by 7)
• Mayo Pete v Trump-- 47% to 43% (Mayo wins by 4)
• Elizabeth Warren v Trump-- 48% to 45% (Elizabeth wins by 3)
• Andrew Yang v Trump-- 46% to 44% (Yang wins by 2)
• Tom Steyer v Trump-- 44% to 44% (a tie)
• Amy Klobuchar v Trump-- 43% to 45% (Klobuchar loses by 2)
• Tulsi v Trump-- 39% to 44% (Tulsi, a bridge too far for many, loses by 5)

Why does Bernie win so overwhelmingly? Well, by the numbers Bernie kills Trump among women (58-37%), among voters under 35 (61-35%), among the elderly (49-45%), among Black voters (88-7%), among Hispanic voters (64-32%), among poor people (61-35%), among the working class (56-38%), among the middle class (49-47%), among self-identified "moderates" (59-34%), among voters who identify as "very liberal" voters (94-4%), among voters whose education went no higher than high school (49-46%), among college graduates (55-40%), among voters making less than $40,000 annually (59-38%), among voters making more than $40,000 annually (50-44%), among union households (52-44%), among LBGTQ households (71-26%), among people who live in cities (65 to 31%), among suburbanites (51-44%), among voters in the northeast (56-39%), among voters in the Midwest (51-44%), among voters in the South (50-46%), among voters in the West (55-40%) and, perhaps most importantly, among independent voters (52-40%). No other Democrat can compare to Bernie's 12% thrashing of Trump among independents. Biden wins by 8%, Mayo wins by 4%, Elizabeth wins by 1%, Bloomberg wins by 10%, Klobucahar loses by 3%, Yang wins by 3%, Steyer loses by 2% and Tulsi loses by 1%.

And let's not stop there, not by any means. A new SSRS poll was released by CNN yesterday. Bernie has taken the national lead among registered Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents since December.

• Bernie- 27% (up 7)
• Status Quo Joe- 24% (down 2)
• Elizabeth Warren- 14% (down 2)
• Mayo Pete- 11% (up 3)
• Bloomberg- 5% (flat)
• Klobuchar- 4% (up 1)
• Yang- 4% (up 1)
• Steyer- 2% (up 1)

The poll also asked the enthusiasm question. No surprises here. These are who registered Dems and Dem-leaning independents are enthused about and how that has changed since October:

• Bernie- 38% (down 1)
• Status Quo Joe- 34% (down 9)
• Elizabeth Warren- 29% (down 12)
• Mayo Pete- 24% (down 3)
• Bloomberg- 15%
• Klobuchar- 14%

That's probably related to the question about which candidate voters agree with on the issues, Bernie was far ahead with 30%, followed by Status Quo Joe with 20%, Elizabeth Warren with 15%, Mayo with 10%, Yang, Klobuchar and Bloomberg with 5% each, Steyer with 3% and among Republicans who are too stupid to not understand they aren't Democrats, 1% for John Delaney.

Also out yesterday was a poll of registered voters by Baldwin Wallace University measuring 4 states whale electoral votes when to Trump in 2016-- Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Status Quo Joe or Bernie were in the top two choices in all four states, Biden ahead in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania and Bernie ahead in Wisconsin. Here's the chart showing the results for Wisconsin:

Hillary's ugly, vicious attack on Bernie in her horrible TV series-- which many people don't understand why she's putting out before the election instead of after it-- unified the Democratic candidates... behind him. Speaking from Davis, Trump weighed in too: "When Hillary says nobody likes him, nobody likes her. That’s why she lost, nobody liked her. She had every advantage. She had this big machine behind her… She’s the one that people don’t like. If I had my choice in terms of personality, I might take him over her. But I probably would take neither." Even the way she backed away was snarky and as nasty as she is:

I was once part of a party of people escorting her to a speaking engagement in Hollywood. One by one everyone disappeared from the green room until I was the only one left with her. It was really awful. Another time I was a state banquet for the president of the Czech Republic and it wasn't until she finally went upstairs that the party became a party. There was an actual collective sigh of relief and every started having a good time. It was the strangest thing I ever saw.

Norman Solomon, writing for Truthdig! Tuesday made the point that Bernie is much more than just another presidential candidate. "To corporate media," he wrote, "Bernie Sanders is incorrigible. He won’t stop defying the standard assumptions about what’s possible in national politics. His 2020 campaign-- with feet on the ground and eyes on visionary horizons-- is a danger to corporate capitalism’s “natural” order that enables wealth to dominate the political process. When the New York Times published its dual endorsement of Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren on Sunday night, the newspaper patted Sanders on the head before disparaging him. 'He boasts that compromise is anathema to him,' the editorial complained. 'Only his prescriptions can be the right ones, even though most are overly rigid, untested and divisive.' Such complaints have been common for centuries, hurled at all the great movements for human rights-- and their leaders. The basic concept of abolishing slavery was 'rigid, untested and divisive.' When one of the leading abolitionists, William Lloyd Garrison, was cautioned to cool it because he seemed on fire, Garrison replied: 'I have need to be all on fire, for there are mountains of ice around me to melt.'"

Bernie Sanders has ample reasons to be all on fire, and so do the social movements that are propelling his campaign for president. They refuse to accept the go-slow advice from the liberal establishment about fighting against systemic cruelties and disasters-- healthcare injustice, vast economic inequality, mass incarceration, institutional racism, the climate emergency, perpetual war and so much more.

The Bernie 2020 campaign is a crucible of broader activism from the grassroots that can spark uprisings of heat and light. To the extent that passivity and fatalism melt away, possibilities for gaining power become more tangible.

Martin Luther King Jr. readily acknowledged that “power without love is reckless and abusive”-- but he emphasized that “love without power is sentimental and anemic.” So, where does that leave us in relation to seeking power?

“Power, properly understood, is the ability to achieve purpose,” Dr. King wrote. “It is the strength required to bring about social, political or economic changes. In this sense power is not only desirable but necessary in order to implement the demands of love and justice.”

That’s what the Bernie 2020 campaign is about-- the necessity of gaining power “in order to implement the demands of love and justice.” And that helps to explain why the campaign is so profoundly compelling at the grassroots. It is oriented to meshing electoral work with social movements-- however difficult that might be at times-- to generate political power from the ground up. And that’s where genuine progressive change really comes from.

“The parties and candidates are not the agents of change,” a former chair of the California Democratic Party’s Progressive Caucus, Karen Bernal, said a few days ago at a pro-Sanders forum in San Rafael. “It’s the other way around. They respond to the outside forces of movements.”

Bernal was elected as co-chair of California’s Sanders delegation to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, and she is strongly supporting the Bernie 2020 campaign. While remaining intensely engaged with elections, Bernal keeps her eyes on the prize. “We don’t want to turn this into a cult of personalities,” she said. “It’s about the movement.”

Much of the energy behind the Sanders campaign is generated by what corporate media outlets often criticize or mock-- Bernie’s consistency as he keeps denouncing massive income inequality and corporate power. In the process, he confronts head-on the system that enables huge profiteering by such enterprises as the healthcare industry, fossil-fuel companies, private prisons and the military-industrial complex.

By remaining part of social movements, Bernie has made himself especially antithetical to the elite sensibilities of corporate media. Elites rarely appreciate any movement that is challenging their unjust power.

The electoral strength of the Bernie Sanders campaign is enmeshed with intensities of feeling and resolve for progressive change that pollsters and editorial writers are ill-equipped to measure or comprehend. The potential has sometimes been called “the power of the people.” Whatever you call it, such power is usually subjugated. But when it breaks free, there’s no telling what might happen.

If, as looks increasingly possible, Bernie wins in November, he's going to need a more progressive Congress to help him get his program passed. Blue America has a page devoted specifically to electing candidates who support Bernie and are running on many of the same issues, from Medicare-for-All and the Green New Deal, to a peace-oriented foreign policy and a prioritization of education and infrastructure. You can see all the candidates by clicking on the thermometer on the right. But I asked a few of them if they see Bernie's movement taking hold in their districts. Robin Wilt, a Bernie delegate, was the first to respond. "NY’s 25th Congressional District is on fire with the enthusiasm of the Sanders movement," she told me. "We are witnessing people who have never been engaged with electoral politics set out on the iciest days of the season to gather petition signatures in support of Bernie Sanders and his pledged delegates. Even as we have seen record snowfall in Monroe County, we’ve seen record levels of voter activity outside the traditional political establishment, in support of Bernie Sanders and those, like me, who are championing his policies. To contrast the levels of enthusiasm, when a local NPR talk show host called for Sanders supporters to come on his show, he was immediately overrun with requests. A similar request for Biden supporters elicited not a single response for two days. Establishment Democrats like Biden and Rep. Joe Morelle [Wilt's opponent], are facing unprecedented levels of people-powered pushback against the status quo."

Liam O'Mara is a progressive history professor taking on corrupt Riverside County Trumpist, Ken Calvert. "Sanders' arguments," he explained, "resonate in the 42nd congressional district, especially when in conversations we can get past the partisan talking points and address the issues facing ordinary people. He came close to winning the 42nd in the 2016 primary, and local activists are confident he will come out ahead this time. The integrity that Senator Sanders shows is powerfully appealing in an age of extreme partisanship and tightly-scripted artificiality. That he continues to poll as the most popular American politician speaks well to his appeal far beyond a party base, and it is to the wider electorate that we must reach out in order to change the direction of politics in this country, to say nothing of the more immediate goal of taking the presidency and Senate."

Chris Armitage is the super-progressive taking on Trump tool Cathy McMorris Rodgers in the Washington district that includes nice blue Spokane and Whitman County plus a lot of red in the eastern part of the state bordering on the northern Idaho fascist-oriented panhandle. Armitage had every intention of calling McMorris Rodgers out on her Trumpist extremism. Today he reminded us that "70% of Americans support Medicare for All, while less than 1/3rd of Congress does. Every candidate who has backslid on their support for M4A has fallen in the polls. My opponent has voted against pre-existing conditions protections multiple times. She is willing to continue to let people die so she can keep stuffing her pockets with Big Pharma money. We are done with the lies and corruption."

"I have no doubt that Bernie will win my district," said Oregon candidate Mark Gamba, mayor of Milwaukie. He did last time and his movement has only grown since then. 3 years of the opposite of Bernie makes the critical importance of visionary, people centered, massive change just that much more obvious. That's also why I'm confident that I will beat my Biden endorsing, Blue Dog corporatist opponent. He is completely out of touch with the needs of most people and he advocates for incremental changes and works behind the scenes to benefit his corporate donors. Bernie and I share a passion for massive mobilization to stop climate chaos, health care as a human right and causing the corporations to pay their fair share for a change. I know that it is time for a resurgence of middle class prosperity. I know that it's time to create a truly equitable society. I know that it is time to get money out of politics so that real representation can be afforded the 99%. The Oregon 5th will go true blue this time and President Sanders will have another ally in Congress.

Shan Chowdhury is the progressive candidate in Queens taking on one of Congress' most corrupt members, New Dem Gregory Meeks. Shan told us last night that "Bernie Sanders has inspired a rebirth of revolutionary politics that has been desolate in many parts of the country including district like mine In NY-05. For more than 20 years, Meeks has been comfortable in power-- raking millions of dollars from the finance industry and stealing homes from working families. For so long, our people have been beat down, blaming ourselves for the unfortunate circumstances we found ourselves indebted to profiteering system. Now, we are organizing around issues that matter to us. People in the district are seeing that no matter how hard we work to live up the standards in this country, corrupt politicians like Meeks destroys the spirits of hard working Americans. We are organizing because we now know it does not have to be that way anymore. The revolution is knocking on everyone’s doorsteps."

Eva Putzova was a Flagstaff city council member and a crusader for raising the minimum wage when she elected as a Bernie delegate to the DNC. Today she's the progressive champion challenging "ex"-Republican legislator Tom O'Halleran, who now calls himself a Blue Dog Democrat, to an Arizona congressional seat. "Bernie Sanders's anti-corporate, anti-establishment movement," she told us yesterday, "is popular among voters in my district. Most ordinary people want to live in a community where they feel like they can afford healthcare, education, child care, housing, and the other necessities of life. They want a clean environment, they understand that there is a climate emergency and want something done about it, and don't want their children to go to unnecessary, wasteful wars of choice. The pro-corporate, pro-military interventionist views of my opponent are NOT popular in my district. Our campaign to put people, not corporations, first-- like Bernie's movement-- is well received by the voters."