Let's just say a little bird told us so.
The 2016 election will be viewed through the lens of history as the beginning of the end of establishment politics. On the right, Donald Trump has turned the primary season into his own reality show, puppeteering a spellbound media who, unsurprisingly, seem to be valuing salacious coverage more than serious journalism. Donald has used the media to execute the long con, and was able to secure the Republican nomination while doing so.
But on the left, Bernie Sanders has emerged as the godfather of a bonafide political movement. His candidacy, one that was largely written off before it was even off the ground, has irked the Democrat establishment and front-runner Hillary Clinton almost as much as it has inspired millions of Americans to see beyond the bells and whistles of a typical presidential campaign. If anything, Sanders is redefining what it means to be a progressive in America, a nation where progressivism almost always becomes watered down by the conventional wisdom that only centrists can govern the state.
Not anymore.
A few years ago, Occupy Wall Street became the top story for weeks in America. A statement was made, specifically about the corruption in modern American politics and the revolving influence between government and corporations. But what began as a triumphant first step towards a potential shift in the zeitgeist ended as an over-idealistic and ultimately disappointing failure. Like the flower children of the 60s, Occupy Wall Street protestors faded away almost as quickly as they appeared.
Sanders is different. He is not a young, dynamic socialist with millennial slang and an unrealistic set of demands. After all, he's been meticulously on message for a half century. He's also what Disney might conceive if they created a grandfather to be president, a unique combination of youthful idealism and practical experience but with a magical fairy dust that attracts mostly younger people in droves. With the public used to crotchety, stale old white men making promises but mostly being subservient to big business, Sanders is now the anti-politician in America.
Most importantly, the Sanders campaign represents a real tipping point in America.
He's also considered perilously close to losing the Democrat nomination.
Clinton and her people have done everything conceivable to secure the primary for the former Secretary of State. Clinton pom-pom waver and DNC chair, Debbie Wasserman-Shultz, has been in the tank for Clinton so transparently that Sanders recently called for her resignation.
Before the race even started over 400 super delegates, a group with a moniker only the establishment could consider super, threw their support firmly behind Clinton, a move that convinced many democrats that the fix was already in. Clinton's tentacles reach well into the media as well, with former staffers and paid consultants universally praising their former boss on the web pages and TV screens of major media outlets.
Sanders, meanwhile, has run his campaign by telling Americans his platform (imagine that!) while securing small donations from millions of Americans. He refused to set up a Super Pac and is not asking any corporations for donations.
Most importantly, the Sanders campaign represents a real tipping point in America. The United States is a polarized country featuring two very frustrated groups of voters. The Trump candidacy, despite its unsavory moments, cements the reality that the public desires to rid itself of the establishment, bucking the status quo through right-wing populism. Sanders has likewise rebuffed the status quo through grass roots progressivism. That the two campaigns are resonating in the same year is no coincidence, and it places both major parties in a long overdue position; to overhaul the entire political process and replace it with something that is more palpable for every day people.
But since it is too late for the parties to reinvent themselves before November, the voters have decided to draw first blood. And despite Clinton, an establishment candidate if there ever was one, receiving more votes than anyone in the race thus far, the majority of the country are signaling they want something new. They want authenticity.
Let's be honest, Hillary Clinton is not the right candidate to usher in a new era of transparency and fairness in America. She embodies the opposite of both. Her current email scandal has unveiled a complete-yet-unsurprising disregard for truthfulness. Even after the inspector general's scathing report, Clinton still trots out her faithful aides to repeat exhaustingly familiar talking points; but the media is no longer dialing it in, challenging her and her spokespeople on the finer details of the scandal.
To further punctuate the seriousness of the IG report, an Obama Justice Department may soon be forced to act on a possible FBI recommendation to indict Clinton. If the Justice Department ignores the FBI recommendation the blowback on the party will most certainly secure the presidency for Trump. Everything Sanders has been talking about regarding establishment politics will be crystallized for a public not in the mood for a carny-like grifting.
Sanders will need a perfect storm; a near sweep of the remaining states in the primary, the aforementioned worsening of Clinton's email scandal, and cooperation from super delegates who would have to abandon Clinton's campaign by the hundreds and throw their support behind the Sanders revolution. All this seemed improbable, if not impossible, just a couple weeks ago, but the stubborn Senator from Vermont refuses to give up, energizing his supporters, and telling the country that the systemic corruption is about to be rendered moot.
And finally, there's a reason why hardly anyone is talking about America electing its first female president. Unlike the first black president, Clinton is not inspirational. She places second only to Donald Trump for the most unlikable presidential candidate in the history of modern polling, a fact as conspicuous as the signage on Trump Tower. She's no Elizabeth Warren, in other words, at a time when the country could use an Elizabeth Warren.
The American public, for all its bizarre habits of celebrating some of the world's most infamous hucksters and conmen, can, on occasion, show an uncanny ability to read the tea leaves, and they know that a President Hillary Clinton would cheapen the inaugural selection of a woman to finally lead the free world.
But a Sanders presidency would turn the establishment on its head, propelling democracy forward and reigniting the fight for social and economic justice. How do I know? A little bird told me so.
Correction: A previous version of this blog stated that the State Department may indict Hillary Clinton, when in fact it is the Justice Department.
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