FALL 2015
ally. Nevertheless, he is gaining ground
fast; the averages one month ago put him
down 28 poins in Iowa, 58 in South Carolina, and 36 nationally. The most recent
set of polls has Sanders leading by 10 in
the Hawkeye State and 22 points in New
Hampshire. The average in the Granite
State also has him leading by 11 percent.
And, of course, the campaign is young and
polls change. Sanders, who refuses to take
money from Super PACs or large corporations, does have the grassroots support to
make a break for victory when the Iowa
caucus comes around, and if his showings in early primary states are strong
enough, he might be able to rally a more
organized support system that could win
him the nomination. This, of course, is an
ideal scenario for many of his voters, who
like to point out that Sanders polls better
than Jeb Bush, Donald Trump, and Scott
Walker in a recent national poll. Nevertheless, when voters are asked directly
if they would ever vote for a socialist,
only 59 percent of Democrats would do
so, making it highly unlikely that, once
Republicans turned their media focus
onto Sanders, he would make it to Election Night with the same poll numbers he
has right now. Moreover, Bernie Sanders’ campaign recalls a scenario already
played out in Democratic electoral history. We have seen before what happens
when the far left pushes out more moderate components of the Democratic Party.
Sanders would be McGovern’s second
coming, and most, if not all, of the current
Republican candidates would defeat him.
Far more plausible t