“The New Deal was made possible with a new electorate. And just as the mass entry into politics of first- and second-generation Eastern European immigrants brought Roosevelt (and the CIO) to power, Latinos — who are solidly behind Sanders — could very well be the force that helps bring social democracy to America. Bernie’s staunch anti-establishment outsider appeal and his platform focused on workers’ issues is winning non-partisans, new voters, young voters, and working-class immigrants. That’s not just a savvy coalition for winning the Nevada caucuses, it’s how Bernie Sanders becomes president. Face it, establishment Democrats — it’s his party now.”
Dustin Guastella and Connor Kilpatrick, Jacobin Magazine

“What Bloomberg and his apologists fail to understand is that challenging political power brokers has significant appeal among grassroots Democrats and independents. Notably, in Nevada, of the 17 percent of caucus-goers who identified as independents, Sanders won 50 percent. The next-closest contender, Buttigieg, was at 13 percent, and no one else was in double digits… an antiestablishment message is electable.”
John Nichols, The Nation

“[Mainstream Democrats] worry at times that Sanders would simply prove too extreme to get things done as president. And, indeed, on occasion his campaign lapses into rhetoric that suggests an unreasonable aversion to compromise. But it’s worth remembering that Sanders is a 30-year veteran of the US Congress…

“Sanders has sometimes staked out lonely, courageous stands (against the Iraq War or the Defense of Marriage Act, which barred same-sex couples from enjoying the same federal benefits as married couples)… But he’s never pulled a Freedom Caucus-type stunt… He voted for President Barack Obama’s Children’s Health Insurance Program reauthorization bill in 2009, and again for the Affordable Care Act in 2010. He voted for the Dodd-Frank bill and every other contentious piece of Obama-era legislation… there’s no reason to be worried that Sanders is a deluded radical who doesn’t understand how the government works.”
Matthew Yglesias, Vox

Yet “Unity is nowhere in sight. Sanders’s Friday tweet — ‘I’ve got news for the Republican establishment. I’ve got news for the Democratic establishment. They can’t stop us’ — showed he’s in no mood to pull this fractured party together. This breach of party solidarity alarmed down-ticket Democrats hoping to keep control of the House and win the Senate — and must have delighted Trump, whose Saturday night tweet announced how he’ll exploit the opposition’s fractiousness, no matter what’s next. He congratulated ‘Crazy Bernie’ on his Nevada victory, adding, ‘Don’t let them take it away from you!’”
E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post

“His campaign really should be having an internal debate at this point about what can possibly be gained by railing against the elites of a party that he looks to be on the verge of conquering and which made a number of changes to its nominating system after 2016 at his express request. Remember: They might be the establishment in a few months.”
David Faris, The Week

“Clinton promised a ‘third way,’ distinct from traditional Democratic or Republican policies. Bush ran on compassionate conservatism. Obama said that red and blue America shared more in common than pundits claimed. Even Trump, radical as he is, flouted Republican orthodoxy by sounding like a populist Democrat on Social Security, Medicare and trade… Can you think of one way that Bernie Sanders is signaling respect to voters outside of his base?… turning every compromise into an existential moral failing is not a smart way to practice politics. It comforts the persuaded while alienating the persuadable.”
David Leonhardt, New York Times