So why is it exactly that Bernie does so amazingly well with independents?

[DaveT]

12. The biggest and most poisonous myth

about public opinion in the USA imputes an ideological "spectrum" on our citizens, with a left-right-center classification system. It is accurate for maybe 10 or at most 20 percent of the population. But countless studies have shown that the overwhelming majority of people have no coherent ideology at all. Furthermore, most Americans are terribly ignorant of civics class facts about democracy, bills passed, wars fought and proposals floated.

This lack of ideological coherence and factual knowledge does not mean the people are stupid. It means that people have other priorities -- that the great majority are what Thom Hartmann calls Low Information Voters.

This assessment should not be confused with how people self-identify when asked by a pollster. People will place themselves on the "spectrum" because the pollster defines the question that way. But only a sliver of the public has any coherent notion of what liberal, moderate and conservative actually mean. I am sure that many other DUers have had the experience of having relatives or friends tell us with a straight face that Barack Obama is a "socialist.' I will never forget the look on my sister's face when I told her that the President was not even a liberal.


Every once in a while people start to pay attention to politics because they are really upset about some public issue. In my lifetime, I have seen civil rights, the draft, the Vietnam War, school busing, inflation, crime, September 11, the alleged War on Terror, and Katrina all induce otherwise disinterested people to pay attention to politics. And now, both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are garnering support mainly due to the lingering effects of The Great Recession, and, by implication, all the policies that created it.

That is why there are a significant slice of the electorate who have Sanders and Trump as their first and second choices. Many of them will use the expression Republicrat, without necessarily agreeing with me or many DUers on WHY they feel that there is no meaningful difference between the parties -- but that is definitely a commonly held view.


So to answer your question -- lots of people who identify themselves as Independent do not know anything about ideology in the first place. This is not an indictment of their intelligence. It is instead an indictment of our educational system and our mass media which oblige citizens to go to a lot of effort to understand the operation of our government. Such people are part of a developing majority who realize that there is no longer a future for America.

Whereas when I graduated high school in 1971, there was no doubt whatsoever that if you were willing to work you could go to college or trade school and you could count on a middle class lifestyle and a better future for your children. Now that is just not even close to reality.

When Trump says that he will make America Great Again, most of his supporters take that to mean that he will somehow bring back the world of my youth when it really was your own fault if you could not make it (at least for white people.) They do not understand that it was the triumph of "conservative" politics that blew up the New Deal promise of social mobility. Nor do they care, for the most part.

They just know that mainstream Republicans and mainstream Democrats are mealy mouthed parasites that deserve no respect.

When Sanders says that it will take a political revolution to make any meaningful change from the disastrous course we are on, it is not just true, but it fits with what a big slice of people who do not identify themselves as "liberal" are thinking now. The most significant thing about this primary campaign so far is this -- Hillary's lead in delegates was NOT built on people voting AGAINST Sanders for his socialism and his allegedly far left agenda. She is winning the African American vote, the female vote and the elderly. She is winning among self-idenfied Democrats as well, which is actually a restatement.

None of those demographics will go to Trump.

Sanders has a shot at winning a big slice of Independents and Trump voters not because he is a Socialist -- but because he is not part of the Republicrat status quo.