This year we are seeing something we’ve never seen before. The two political parties that have dominated American politics for more than fifty years are facing threats from within. On one side you have a candidate who speaks about how the middle class is being hammered by outsourcing, refuses to accept money from special interests, draws tens of thousands of enthusiastic supporters to rallies, dominates media attention, and yet was dismissed as a joke early in his campaign. Which candidate does this describe, Trump or Sanders? Your answer to that question largely depends upon whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican. In truth, it’s both. Another thing both Trump and Sanders have in common is that neither is going anywhere soon.
While as of this date, Donald Trump is dominating nearly every remaining GOP primary or caucus contest, Sanders has more of a hurtle to overcome. I am no supporter of Bernie Karl Marx Sanders. But as a person who’s an astute observer of politics, I find it deliciously ironic that the party accusing republicans of voter suppression, with voter ID laws, might find itself giving Hillary Clinton the nomination even if Sanders wins most of the primary contests. This results from the presence of democratic super-delegates: numbering around 700; primarily consisting of party insiders; majority of who are, of this date, supporting Hillary Clinton. So, Bernie Sanders could lose the nomination to Hillary even if he wins a majority of the primary contests.
It’s at this point in the cable news broadcasts that the remote reporter sends it “back to New York” so the next news story can be introduced. But wait. Does anyone in their right mind think, having identified himself as an independent throughout his entire political career, having run against democrats in the past costing them elections, having defined his entire Presidential campaign as a fight against the establishment, that Sanders will quietly accept defeat after being so clearly robbed of the nomination? Forget Bloomberg running as an independent if Trump and Sanders receive their respective parties’ nominations. The real possibility is Sanders running a third party kamikaze Presidential campaign. He’ll run as a “democratic socialist,” whatever the hell that is. There are some who are likely thinking that will never happen. But, that’s the same thing people have said to those who suggested Trump could survive insulting McCain, or disabled people, or proposing a Muslim immigration ban, or suggesting we don’t know who attacked us on 911. After all, what would Sanders have to lose? At 74 years old, his only other alternative is to go back home and wait to die.