Where the campaigns of Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders meet (HRC GP)

[Her Sister]

Where the campaigns of Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders meet: Examining the fatal flaw in their election strategies
Cruz and Sanders both ran campaigns of ideological purity that burned bright but failed in the same way
AMANDA MARCOTTE

http://www.salon.com/2016/05/04/where_the_campaigns_of_ted_cruz_and_bernie_sanders_meet_examining_the_fatal_flaw_in_their_election_strategies/

But the simple truth is that there hasn’t ever really been much reason to think this. Both candidates have had ample time to make their case, but their opponents have still garnered a greater share of the votes. While supporters of both have endless excuses for this, arguing that the majority is either being bamboozled or bought off, the more likely explanation is that their opponents simply have a more appealing pitch to the voters.

Ultimately, Cruz and Sanders share a fatal flaw, one that is common in politics generally but becomes more pronounced in campaigns built around ideological purity: The assumption that “people like me” are more common and representative than they are, simply because you see more of them in your day-to-day life. Call it the “silent majority” fallacy, if you will. Cruz’s assumption that there are millions of unacknowledged evangelicals laying in wait, ready to spring into action once activated, is likely the result of him personally knowing a lot of evangelicals and assuming they are more common than they are. Similarly, Sanders and his supporters have a tendency to speak as if the people who come out to vote for him are the mainstream, and to talk about Clinton supporters in dismissive terms, as if they are fringe or unrepresentative.

This kind of thinking makes it hard to build a coalition, because you assume that your existing constituency is enough and you don’t really need to do the hard work of wooing people that are different from you. The results speak for themselves. The Cruz campaign basically ignored the millions of conservatives who aren’t particularly moved by religion and the result is a losing campaign. The Sanders campaign has written off traditional Democratic constituencies, like people of color and working women, concentrating instead on turning out independents and the white male voters that they already had.

It’s too late, really, for the Sanders campaign to learn much from the missteps of the Cruz campaign. But it’s worth noting these similarities when it comes to future campaigns from insurgent candidates who want to hold down a position further from the center than their opponent. Believing yourself to be on a moral crusade can help you weather storms, but it can also lead to blinkered thinking and poor outreach. Cruz has admitted that he’s lost this round. Sanders should probably consider doing the same.

[CrowCityDem]

1. I thought we already knew this.

Aside from districts that were drawn to be completely insulated from reality, political purity almost never works as a strategy. Even among the faithful, there are going to be issues not everyone agrees with. And when the rhetoric drifts far enough into the territory of being 'with us or against us', those differences become doubt, and the message falls apart. That's why we have 'fringe candidates', and they rarely win on the larger stages.

[Her Sister]

3. Don't think their supporters know know this!

[Surya Gayatri]

2. So well said...thanks for posting, HS.

Believing yourself to be on a moral crusade can help you weather storms, but it can also lead to blinkered thinking and poor outreach.

[GusBob]

4. And so the post motems begins

"and to talk about Clinton supporters in dismissive terms"

That's putting it nicely. Clinton supporters were thrown under bus after bus often in the vilest terms

Bye bye Bernie

[fleabiscuit]

5. Yuppers...

"...the more likely explanation is that their opponents simply have a more appealing pitch to the voters...."

[IamMab]

6. "and you don’t really need to do the hard work of wooing people that are different from you." Ding!

Ding-ding-ding, we have a winner!

[DemonGoddess]

7. this part-

what seems to fuel both of them is this stubborn sense that they should be the winner, due to the aforementioned ideological purity.