Bernie Sanders: Just how far will the socialist vote go in the United States?
Its hard not to dislike Bernie Sanders, even if you think his economic & tax polices would be a disaster for the United States, you cannot deny the fact that he appears to possess what few politicians have, integrity, honesty, and a willingness to stand against the lobbyists & the interests of wall street.
However the question has to be asked, just how far will the socialist vote go in the U.S.?
We have seen this surge before when Ralph Nader ran for President in 2000, who despite his popularity in the polls during the election received less than 3% of the vote.
In fairness, many democrats switched over to Gore at the last minute in order to vote for the lesser of two evils, but with Sanders running in the primaries, we might get a more accurate assessment of just how far the socialist vote goes within the Democratic party, especially if the Hillary email scandal starts to damage her run.
Here are some of the current challenges for Sanders....
1) Sanders has trouble appealing to centrists within the party with moderates viewing him just as unfavorably as favorably....
Bernie Sanders’s limited appeal — even to Democrats - The Washington Post
2) As of yet, he has a limited appeal amongst low income voters, particularly in minority communities, & this is where it gets interesting, because you would think this is where the hard left vote would come from, but it does not. In fact, outside of the African American vote, Obama who was viewed to the left of Clinton also had trouble picking up moderate votes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/09/up...abt=0002&abg=0
Which begs the question? Is this just a question of education? social values? or is it because low income voters don't want to take the chance with an economic platform that could hurt them the most via a slowdown?
In other words how far will the socialist vote go in the US?
To be fair Sanders is not a socialist, he does not advocate for nationalization of industry, (though he does advocate for worker co-ops) but he is a strong social democrat and pump and prime Keynesian, here are some links to his policies.
Agenda for America: 12 Steps Forward
https://berniesanders.com/issues/