The best politics is local
Americans tend to have a romanticized, inflated sense of the White House and its power. In domestic affairs, most of the power is elsewhere.
Americans tend to have a romanticized, inflated sense of the White House and its power. In domestic affairs, most of the power is elsewhere.
The state of U.S. politics makes it tempting to throw energy behind a messianic bid for the presidency. It also makes this a dubious strategy.
The signature issue of Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign is economic inequality. He talks about it constantly. It’s at the top of the list on his site’s “issues” page; items two through five are really about inequality, too.
So far, this presidential campaign season has been dominated by the narrative of the steadfast outsider. A July poll found that more than three-quarters of Donald Trump’s supporters like him because he stands up to the media and isn’t interested in political correctness. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders, a secular Jew and registered Independent, is energizing the Democratic base—not by minimizing his European-style socialism, but by shooting straight. “He’s so authentic, he’s hip,” wrote Steve Winkler in the Guardian.
Then there’s Joe Biden, who hasn’t said yet if he’ll run.