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Understanding the Crisis that Is Facing America

During the 2016 Election – and Why Bernie Sanders

May Be the World’s Only Hope.

- Douglas McRae

For the past few months, every article that references Donald Trump on the

Huffington Post contains a very brief Editor’s Note at the end, advising the reader

that “Donald Trump is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist, birther

and bully who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims – 1.6 billion members of

an entire religion – from entering the U.S.” What makes this Note truly intriguing is

the fact that it refers to the man who is currently the undisputed frontrunner for

the Republican candidate for President of the United States of America; a man who

– during the last televised primary debate – proudly defended the size of his penis

on stage. On the Democratic candidacy side, a 74-year old agnostic who is a self-

proclaimed “democratic socialist” and not even a registered Democrat is currently

locked in a two-way battle against the only remaining vestige of American political

dynasties: a scandal plagued life-long politician who is receiving nearly all of the

establishment support despite being under Federal investigation. Watching this

crazy-train of a cluster-circus unfold before them, a collective cry of “how is this

possible” continues to emanate the average American voter. What the fuck is going

on?The answer, as former President William Jefferson Clinton’s political advisor

James Carville astutely observed back in 1992, is simple: “[t]he economy, stupid.”

 And the truth behind all of this is a hell of a lot more terrifying that most people

think.

The United States Government Has Been Operating Under a

Neoliberal Economic Theory for the Past 35 Years.

To understand exactly what is happening in this election cycle requires an

understanding of same basic economic theories and the role that those theories have

played in American politics and our current economic state. At the core of this is the

economic ideology known as “neoliberalism.” Neoliberalism is not a political theory –

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it has absolutely nothing to do with liberal or conservative political beliefs, such as

abortion rights or gun control. Neoliberalism is, instead, an economic theory based

upon the proposal that human well-being is best served “by liberating individual

entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework

characterized by strong private property rights, free markets, and free trade.”1

In other words, an economic ideology based upon principles of individual

accountability, non-redistributive taxes and largely unregulated businesses – think

laissez-faireor Ayn Rand-type economics with a minimal amount of business

regulation and social security programs, so people aren’t starving in the streets.2 

The economic policies promoted under a neoliberal ideology allow for the

maximization of competition alongside a generalized indifference to poverty,3

which permits the expansive growth of increasingly larger and more powerful

companies. The end result of this is income inequality – a vast difference in the

amount of income and wealth between the very few individuals who control the

methods of production (the 1%)4 and the work force necessary for that production

(the 99%).

When Ronald Reagan was elected President in 1980, he brought neoliberal

economics to the Republican Party and the United States government.5 The Reagan-

era tax cuts – with the promise that untaxed monies would grow and trickle down

and benefit all Americans – implemented the first part of neoliberal ideology and

ended the redistribution of wealth through taxes that had been in place in this

Country since the New Deal.6 Then President William Clinton brought

neoliberalism to the Democratic Party, and implemented the rest of it with his social

welfare and prison reform (gutting the social security net and increasing the prison

population on the premise of individual accountability), free-trade (such as NAFTA)

1 http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=376 

2 http://www.globalissues.org/article/39/a-primer-on-neoliberalism 

3 http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/04/american-nightmare-the-depravity-of-

neoliberalism/ 4 The 1% described here – the “economic elite” and large corporations – refers to

those who control the methods of production in the Country – the owners of the

large corporations and the large corporations themselves. It is not meant to refer

literally to the top 1% of income earners.

5 http://monthlyreview.org/2001/04/01/neoliberalism-from-reagan-to-clinton/ 

6 http://monthlyreview.org/2001/04/01/neoliberalism-from-reagan-to-clinton/ 

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and deregulation of businesses and finance (such as the repeal of Glass-Steagall).7

Neoliberalism is the current political establishment in Washington, D.C. – it is the

underlying economic theory that has united both Democrats and Republicans since

1980.8 And for the past 36 years it has resulted in a gross increase in income

inequality in America.

Income Inequality Has Grown to Devastating Levels the Past 35

 Years Under Our Neoliberal Economic Policies.

To understand how bad inequality has grown requires first looking at changes in

productivity during this period of time. Worker productivity since the late 1970s

until today is up almost 74%9 – meaning that every single worker makes nearly

twice as much “product” as before, largely thanks to technology. But those workers

do not get paid twice as much – indeed, during that same period of time, overall

wages went up by only 9.2%.10 Some studies, factoring in inflation, in fact conclude

that the American worker has not just endured wage stagnation during this time,

but – at the end of the day – has actually had her actual real wage decreases during

this time.11 Workers are producing more, but they are not making more money.

So where does that extra money go?

Well, quite simply, the other 65% of value resulting from the increasedproductivity goes to the 1% – the large corporations and economic elite that own the

methods of production.12 It is this transfer of the wealth from the increases in the

productivity of the workers to the owners controlling the methods of production has

7 http://monthlyreview.org/2001/04/01/neoliberalism-from-reagan-to-clinton/ 

8 

http://www.salon.com/2015/04/29/neoliberals_are_killing_us_the_ted_talk_techno_ut

opian_thomas_friedman_economy_is_a_lie/ 

9 http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/02/why-the-gap-between-worker-pay-and-productivity-is-so-problematic/385931/ 

10 http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/02/why-the-gap-between-

worker-pay-and-productivity-is-so-problematic/385931/ 

11 http://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/ 

12 http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/02/why-the-gap-between-

worker-pay-and-productivity-is-so-problematic/385931/ 

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resulted in the massive increases in income inequality that we see today. At the

same time, the economic elite have used their massive wealth to fund politicians

that enact policies even more favorable to them; so that in addition to stagnant

wages, the middle class are also forced to endure the increased burden of health

care costs, the loss of manufacturing jobs to free-trade agreements, the weakeningof prevailing wage laws and overtime protections, and the failure to implement

standards to provide sick leave, family leave or minimum vacation schedules.13

The American middle class has been steadily working harder and making less for

almost 40 years.14 

 And things are even worse for the lower class. 46.7 million Americans – around

15% of the population – live in actual poverty – either the working poor or the

unemployed.15 The initial promise of neoliberal economic ideology that the “rising

tide would lift all boats” has been belied by the fact that the poverty level in the

United States has been essentially stagnant in this Country since the start of the

1980s.16 Trickle-down economics does not actually happen – not in any substantive

way. When President Clinton gutted the American social security net with his

welfare reform law in 1996,17 things got even worse. The safety net is barely there

and there are millions of people in this Country who suffer horribly every single

day.18 People are quite literally dying of poverty in what is considered to be the

wealthiest nation in the history of all mankind.19 

Nothing has been done about this problem because the political power of the

economic elite has grown to the point that Congress is no longer accountable to the

general American public. As a mathematical fact, universal healthcare would be

better for essentially every single U.S. voter (every person would receive full

13 http://www.politicalresearch.org/2014/10/07/from-the-new-right-to-neoliberalism-

the-threat-to-democracy-has-grown/#sthash.UmluWzwn.dpbs 

14 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/20/middle-class-charts_n_6507506.html 

15 http://talkpoverty.org/basics/ 

16 http://journalistsresource.org/studies/economics/inequality/poverty-2014-

overview-research-trends 17 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/27/bernie-sanders-is-

right-bill-clintons-welfare-law-doubled-extreme-poverty/ 

18 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/25/opinion/how-poor-are-the-poor.html?_r=0 

19 http://fortune.com/2015/09/30/america-wealth-inequality/ (in the Forbes 2015 list,

the United States is not only number one, but actually has four times the wealth of

the second wealthiest nation, China).

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healthcare coverage and save hundreds or thousands of dollars per year)20 – and yet

politicians repeatedly say that universal healthcare is a political possibility at this

time. Why? Because Congress has absolutely no accountability to American voters.

The economic elites do not want universal healthcare to be passed since the

insurance and pharmaceutical industries in which they are invested make billionsoff of private healthcare every year,21 so politicians tell the public it is impossible to

do with no worries of being voted out of office. It is this lack of accountability that

allows the economic elite to force every average taxpayer to pay $2,700 in business

subsidies, and only $36 for welfare programs.22 It is this lack of accountability to

voters that allows the economic elite to take actions that can put profit over the very

existence of the human race.23 We are living in an oligarchy,24 and this is the natural

consequence of a neoliberal economic policy and the income inequality that results

from it.

The Current Level of Income Inequality Has Now Reached

Crisis Levels, and the American Voters Know This.

To be perfectly clear, the level of income inequality that currently exists in the

United States is the highest that it has been since 1929 – the year the stock market

crashed and the Great Depression began.

25

 And it is that historically high level of

20 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/health-costs-how-the-us-compares-with-

other-countries/ 

21 http://www.businessinsider.com/statistics-about-the-health-care-industry-2011-2?

op=1 

22 http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/19844-food-stamps-are-affordable-

corporate-welfare-is-not 

23 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/wto-tpp-environment-

solar_us_56d09505e4b0871f60eb3e50 

24 http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/is-america-an-oligarchy; see, for

examplehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/debbie-wasserman-schultz-

paylenders-cfpb_us_56d4ce38e4b03260bf77e8fc (Wasserman-Schultz seeking to

curtail the CFPB’s ability to regulate payday lenders, which prey upon poor people

to an extent that should be criminal).

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inequality back in 1929, coupled with unregulated stock speculation, that caused

the Great Depression.26 

For real – the United States of America is, right now, facing another great

depression. And for someone to say that it cannot happen again is absolutely wrong,

because it already did – the market crash and Great Recession in 2008 was thesame exact thing caused by the exact same problems as the Great Depression –

income inequality and excessive stock speculation.27 The only difference between the

two – why there was a “recession” and not a “depression,” is because the Federal

Government used taxpayer money to bailout big businesses and financial

institutions during the Great Recession.28 This was a Band-Aid, a massive use of

taxpayer money that simply delayed the inevitable because it never corrected the

underlying problems of income inequality and excessive stock market speculation.29

The inherent structural causes of the Great Depression and Great Recession in this

Country remain, which means that unless something is done immediately to

redistribute wealth and reign in stock market speculation, another Great

Depression is coming.30 Eventually, taxpayers will not have the funds to continue

bailing out the economic elite. Eventually the fall will come. Eventually the wealth

will be redistributed.

There are only three ways to redistribute wealth in order to eliminate excessive

income inequality: redistributive taxes, revolution or war.31 The last time the United

States was faced with this crisis at this level of magnitude – the Great Depression –

25 http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2014/1110/Economic-inequality-in-

the-US-reaches-levels-not-seen-since-Great-Depression 

26 http://www.thehistoryconnection.com/Great-Depression-4.html 

27 http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/may/09/income-

inequality-great-recession 

28 http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/secret-and-lies-of-the-bailout-

20130104?page=5 

29 http://www.globalresearch.ca/is-another-depression-possible-a-comparison-of-the-

great-depression-and-the-great-recession/26818 30 http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20110911/REG/309119958;

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/071515/6-factors-point-global-

recession-2016.asp 

31 http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-tudor-jones-on-inequality-2015-3;

http://www.wfs.org/futurist/2014-issues-futurist/september-october-2014-vol-48-no-

5/inequality-predictor-civil-war 

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we managed to save this Country and end the depression by the wealth

redistribution of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal – through redistributive taxes.32

During this time the top corporate tax rates reached 40% for corporations and 94%

on income.33 Income was redistributed and income inequality plummeted down to

sustainable levels.34

 As a result, the American economy flourished. The other twooptions – revolution or war – are outcomes that we must avoid at all costs. However,

if we do not come together as a Country now to do solve the problem of income

inequality, there may be nothing that can be done.

The Great Recession finally raised this issue of income inequality to the public

conscious.35 Even if most Americans are not aware of the underlying economic

ideology of neoliberalism causing the problem, they are aware that whatever

economic policies we have been enacting over the past 40 years are not working.36

 And a result, they want something different.37 This election cycle, economic concerns

are the number one factor driving voters, and by a staggering margin. The latest

CNN/ORC poll on the general election matchup shows that the economy is the most

important issue for 47% of the electorate, followed by health care (which is also an

economic concern) at 19%.38 It is not until terrorism (3rd at 14%), that you find a

non-economic concern, but then after foreign policy is illegal immigrants (again, an

economic concern) at 8%. Simply put, for 74% of the voters some economic issue is

their most important voting concern. This would include the unemployed, the under-

employed, the children and families without food security, the working poor and

majority of the middle class who live paycheck-to-paycheck (estimates have put this

as high as 76% of Americans who live every single day without economic stability).39 

32 http://fee.org/articles/what-ended-the-great-depression/ 

33 Id.

34 http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-

klein/2010/06/inequality_back_at_record_high.html 

35 http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/12/05/americans-see-growing-gap-

between-rich-and-poor/ (2013 Pew Research Survey data).36http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/2016/feb/16/thomas-piketty-

bernie-sanders-us-election-2016 

37 http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-young-democrats-love-bernie-sanders/ 

38 http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/01/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-bernie-

sanders-poll/index.html 

39 http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/24/pf/emergency-savings/ 

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 At the same time that the American electorate is demanding economic change,

they are also blaming the political establishment for the problem having gotten to

where it is.40 The people want change, but they do not feel that the political

establishment will provide that change – so they want someone new, even if it is not

clear actually who something new is.41

 This is the current political landscape of the 2016 Presidential election.

Secretary Hillary Clinton is a neoliberal establishment political figure, promising to

work to maintain the status quo. Donald Trump is an economic elite advancing a

political platform of nationalism is order to distract voters from the unsustainable

economic inequality plaguing this Country. And Senator Bernie Sanders is a

democratic socialist proposing a platform of wealth redistribution that will

completely overhaul the current dominant political ideology in Washington, D.C.

There three paths before the American voter right now – and our future depends on

which path we choose.

Donald Trump is an Economic Nationalist Whose Election

Threatens World War and Global Economic Failure, Along With

Millions of Lives and Environmental Devastation.

Right now, despite months of punditry to the contrary, Donald Trump is likelygoing to secure the Republican Party nomination,42 an outcome driven in large part

by a large number of winner-take-all (16%) and winner-take-most (25%) contests.

Donald Trump needs 1,237 delegates to formally claim the title, and the projections

from the Washington Post put him at 1,246. He has done this on a political platform

of economic nationalism – which he is impliedly offering the voters as an alternative

to the economic ideology of neoliberalism. Economic nationalism is a “set of

40 http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/12/bernie-sanders-2016-why-

sanders-cant-win-213414#ixzz41xEFQTHl 41http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20160225/PC1002/160229621/1021/sanders

-rates-consideration-from-the-right 

42 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/02/23/donald-trump-is-on-

course-to-win-the-1237-delegates-he-needs-to-be-the-gop-nominee/;

http://www.vox.com/2016/2/24/11104782/republican-donald-trump-polls-delegates 

(slightly less definitive).

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practices [designed] to create, bolster and protect national economies in the context

of world markets;”43 it is an ideology based on the promise of keeping jobs and

capital at home through policies that would deport immigrants, “[r]aise tariffs,

impose quotas, prevent corporations from moving capital and jobs overseas,

and cancel treaties like NAFTA.”44

 The Economist warned of this happening back in2009, under President Obama.45 

Economic nationalism does not work. First off, to try and blame the negative

economy on illegal immigrants makes no sense – they are actually beneficial for the

overall economy46 and their loss would devastate the United States economy.47

But even worse, nationalism leads to trade conflicts, like the world suffered in the

early 1930s after the United States tried these very tactics by passing the

nationalist Smoot-Hawley Tariff act.48 Those early United States nationalist policies

resulted in “provoking an avalanche of retaliation, the collapse of world trade and

the formation of antagonistic currency blocs that set the course for the Second World

War.”49 Economic nationalism is what maintained the Great Depression for 10 years,

and lead to the rise of World War II50 – it is a nearly existential threat.

So why is Donald Trump running on a platform of economic nationalism then?

The answer is simple: it is a diversion. The use of diversionary nationalism by

economic elites – such as Donald Trump – is a documented practice in nations

where income inequality has reached an unsustainable level: “anti-redistributive

elites work to increase the salience of national identity in the face of economic

pressure that could undermine their electoral support.”51 Put differently,

“[t]he whipping up of economic nationalism also serves a vital ideological function in

43 http://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/articles/world-economy-trade-and-

finance/economic-nationalism-theory-history-and-prospects 

44 http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/stories/1995-09-17/economic-nationalism-disaster-

ahead 

45 http://www.economist.com/node/13061443 

46 http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/20/news/economy/immigration-myths/ 

47 http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/08/17/could-farms-survive-without-

illegal-labor/without-immigrant-labor-the-economy-would-crumble 

48 http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2009/02/british-workers-britain 

49 https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2009/01/pers-j30.html 

50 

http://www.academia.edu/4047725/Economic_Nationalism_Theory_History_and_Pro

spects 

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diverting the anger of working people over job losses and the precipitous decline in

living standards outwards rather than at the real source of the crisis—the profit

system itself.”52

If this sounds somewhat familiar, that’s because it is a nearly identical to the

political landscape that occurred in Europe prior to the outbreak of World War II.53

If you have ever wondered how the German citizens could have supported Nazi

party, understand that the word “Nazi” is actually an abbreviation of

 Nationalsozialistiche Deutsche Arbeiterpartei – or National Socialist German

Workers’ Party – a nationalist political party created to draw voters away from

socialism. This is how that starts, with a political platform of economic nationalism,

 just like Donald Trump is running on.

Secretary Clinton Is a Neoliberalist Pledging to Continue the

Same Economic Policy that Created the Crisis We Are In.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – like Presidents Ronald Reagan,

George W. Bush, William Clinton and George W. Bush and Barrack Obama before

her – is an economic neoliberal.

54

 That is why she supported the North AmericanFree Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and President Clinton’s welfare reform bill in the

1990s.55 And that is why her current political platform is based upon mild,

incremental progressive programs that are still rooted in personal accountability

and free-markets, such as allowing students to refinance their student loans at a

51 http://euroacademia.eu/presentation/inequality-elite-messaging-and-national-

pride/ 

52 https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2009/01/pers-j30.html 

53 http://www.theguardian.com/business/economics-blog/2014/jun/02/economic-

insecurity-nationalism-on-the-rise-globalisation-nouriel-roubini 

54 http://benjaminstudebaker.com/2016/02/05/why-bernie-vs-hillary-matters-more-

than-people-think/ 

55 http://www.thenation.com/article/why-it-matters-that-hillary-clinton-

championed-welfare-reform/ 

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lower rate56 or building on the private insurance program set up in the affordable

care act.57 Secretary Clinton’s current political platform does not address significant

wealth redistribution, because she does not believe in it. She believes in maintaining

the status quo.

 And the large corporations and designated politicians that make of theneoliberal establishment in Washington, D.C. are now desperately trying to rally

behind Secretary to keep this status quo as long as it can. This is why staunchly

Republican financial institutions, such as Bain Capital, are holding fundraisers for

her,58 and neoconservative military supporters are threatening to defect to her

side.59 This is why the media establishment is actively discounting the hard polling

data on Secretary Clinton’s electability60 and the Democratic political establishment

has been doing its best to keep voter turnout down this election cycle.61 It is not

because these institutions and the economic elite believe that Secretary Clinton can

be bought – it is because they do not need her to be bought because her core

economic beliefs already represent their best interests.

But it is too late for the status quo to remain. In this political climate where

rebellion against the economic establishment is the primary driving issue for voters,

Secretary Clinton’s political platform that major change simply cannot be

successfully undertaken is driving away too many voters.62 The worst moment of

Secretary Clinton’s campaign was when she said that single payer healthcare

“will never, ever come to pass,”63 because it showed voters that she did not believe

56 https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/college/ 

57 https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/health-care/ 

58 http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-money/2016/01/winter-fed-day-with-

an-eye-toward-summer-212365 

59 https://theintercept.com/2016/02/29/neoconservatives-declare-war-on-donald-

trump/ 

60 https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/02/karp-bernie-sanders-electability-clinton-

republicans-trump-election/ 

61 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/election/dem-voter-registration-leading-

turnout-article-1.2545420;http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/24/1490972/-

Democratic-Party-better-heed-Rachel-Maddow-s-warning 

62 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/11/16/1443844/-Hillary-A-Status-Quo-

Candidate-in-a-Change-Election-Cycle 

63 

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/01/no_bernie_sanders_moment_isnt_over_why_his_ga

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the system needed to be fundamentally changed at this time. But it does, and the

 American voter, having already endured the Great Recession, is not willing to wait

anymore. Right now it is estimated that in the United States, every year, 883,914

people die as a result of income inequality,64 and another approximately 400,000

people worldwide are dying every year as a result of climate change – over 1,000 aday are children.65 This will not end until the economic ideology that allows it –

neoliberalism – is replaced. Every year that America continues to follow neoliberal

economic policies, millions of people die while we inch closer to outright revolution

or war.

 And while Secretary Clinton tries in vain to convince the American voters that

the change they are demanding is simply not possible, Donald Trump is out there at

the forefront of Republican Party making promise after promise of change so great

that it cannot even be imagined (or explained). Secretary Clinton’s plan to defeat

Donald Trump in the general election is through a series of personal attacks against

him.66 That will not work, because the American voter does not care about Donald

Trump as a person. That is why the negative attacks on Donald Trump have

absolutely no effect on his standings in the polls.67 Secretary Clinton will lose.

Bernie Sanders Is a Democratic Socialist, Whose Proposals for

Wealth Redistribution Are America’s Best Chance to AvertRevolution or War.

In the midst of all of this, an obscure, wily-haired and agnostic life-long politician

from the tiny State of Vermont has risen to the national political stage on a

grassroots campaign built around an economic policy of “democratic socialism.”

Democratic socialism is an economic theory that combines capitalism with

rgantuan_impact_cant_be_erased_by_a_super_tuesday_drubbing/ 

64 http://inequality.org/inequality-health/ 

65 http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/27/climate-change-kills-400-000-a-

year-new-report-reveals.html 

66 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/us/politics/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-

general-election.html?_r=0 

67 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/republican-debate-

detroit_us_56d903f4e4b03a40567814c7 

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progressive taxes used to redistribute wealth towards positive social programs – just

like what President Roosevelt did with the New Deal.68 It has nothing to do with the

political theories of socialism or communism – it is simply an economic theory of

capitalism that uses a progressive tax component to reduce income inequality.

Senator Sanders is offering the American people an alternative to the status quo ofeconomic ideology in Washington, D.C. – an actual solution to the crisis that this

Country faces – and that is why he has been able to rise up and challenge the most

dominant primary campaign that has ever existed in a non-incumbent race.69

Because he is promising the change this Country is demanding.

 And in a head-to-head race against Donald Trump’s nationalist promises of

change, it is easy to see that Senator Sanders’ proposals are the correct one. It is not

difficult to see where the wealth needs to be distributed from in the United States.

The average (mean) wealth in American is $301,000 per adult – whereas the median

(middle-point) wealth is only $44,900.70 Think about what this means – if wealth

was redistributed out equally among all Americans, every single adult in this

Country would have no debt and $300,000 in their checking account. Instead, all of

that unequal wealth is in the hands of the few economic elites – the 1%. Donald

Trump instead seeks to blame the immigrants and China for this inequality. How

much wealth do illegal immigrants have to transfer? How much money is Donald

Trump going to take back from China? Donald Trump may promise change, but his

ideas of how to get that change cannot hold up against Senator Sanders’ proposals.

This is why, even though Secretary Clinton continues to lead nationally in most

head-to-head polls against Senator Sanders,71 Senator Sanders leads by much more

substantial margins in head-to-head matchups against Donald Trump. The most

recent Quinnipiac polls show Senator Sanders beating Donald Trump by 6

percentage points, whereas Secretary Clinton is ahead by one percentage point,

68 http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/presidential-campaign/271652-what-does-

sanders-mean-by-democratic-socialism 

69 http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-hillary-clinton-steamroller-rumbles-to-life/ 

70 http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/11/news/economy/middle-class-wealth/ 

71http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/2016_democratic_presid

ential_nomination-3824.html (current most recent polling average has Secretary

Clinton leading by 5 percentage points);but see 

http://polling.reuters.com/#poll/TR131 (Reuters trending poll actually has Sanders

in the lead for the past five days nationally, ahead by 1 percentage point).

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within the margin of error.72 In the RealClearPolitics average of polls for these

hypothetical matchups, Secretary Clinton beats Donald Trump by 2.8 percentage

points, compared to Senator Sanders’ lead of 6 percentage points.73 Similarly,

though less worst-case for Democrats, in the HuffingtonPost poll-of-polls, Secretary

Clinton beats Donald Trump by 5 percentage points, compared to Senator Sanderswho beats him by 10 percentage points.74 And while the most recent CNN poll has

Trump doing worse against both, Senator Sanders still has higher margins than

Secretary Clinton.75 

 And in a national election, what matter even more than the popular vote

(Vice President Gore actually won the popular vote in 2000) is the Electoral College

vote. This is where things get worse for Secretary Clinton than even the current

polling numbers show. As a recent Huffington Post analysis of the electoral

breakdown demonstrated, to get the 270 electoral votes necessary “[t]o secure the

presidency, Democrats only have to win the Northeast, the West Coast, and the

Upper Midwest, including Iowa.”76 While President Obama did far better than he

needed to in 2012, his victory would “have been undone by victories for Republican

rival Mitt Romney in just four states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Together, those four Rust Belt states account for 64 electoral votes. Even if

Floridians, Iowans, Coloradans and all of the other swing states had gone to Obama,

his failure to capture the Upper Midwest would have been enough to hand the White

House over to Romney.”77 

Obama was able to capitalize on his rescue of the auto industry, record turnout

and the fact that both neither he nor Mitt Romney offered an alternative to

neoliberal economic ideology. Secretary Clinton does not have those advantages this

time. The Rust Belt is disproportionately working class and white (over 75% in

Michigan, 77% in Pennsylvania, 80% in Ohio and 82% in Wisconsin, compared to

72 

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/2016_presidential_race.html 

73 

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/2016_presidential_race.html 74 http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster#2016-general-election 75 http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/01/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-poll/

76 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-donald-trump-becomes-

president_us_56cb5429e4b0928f5a6c9ead 

77 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-donald-trump-becomes-

president_us_56cb5429e4b0928f5a6c9ead 

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the national average of 62%).78 These are the voters that are flocking to Donald

Trump and his nationalist ideology. This is the part of the Country that was

crushed economically by NAFTA under President William Clinton. Secretary

Clinton runs a very real risk of losing the four Rust Belt States – and thereby the

general election – to Donald Trump. Right now, Donald Trump leads SecretaryClinton in Ohio in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup, 44 to 42 percent.79 

Senator Sanders does not suffer from the same weaknesses as Secretary Clinton

does in the demographic most demanding economic change, having bested Secretary

Clinton among lower income white voters by 9% in Iowa and 46% in New

Hampshire.80 Even nationally, “[i]n a compilation of New York Times/CBS News

surveys since November, Mr. Sanders leads Mrs. Clinton, 47 percent to 39 percent,

among white voters who make less than $50,000.”81 And while Secretary Clinton

may defeat Senator Sanders among African-American minorities in the primary (it

is not clear who, between the two, is leading among Latino minorities),82

those voters tend to be far more Democratic overall and therefore have a much lower

likelihood of defecting over to Donald Trump in the general election, whose

xenophobic rants smack of racism (current polls show him between 4% and 12%

among African-Americans).83 Senator Sanders poses the best chance of winning the

voters in the Rust Belt States and getting the necessary electoral votes to win in the

general election.84 

This becomes even more apparent when Independent voters are considered.

The number of American voters who classify themselves as Independent

(irrespective of actual party registration) is higher than either political party –

78 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-donald-trump-becomes-

president_us_56cb5429e4b0928f5a6c9ead 

79 http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/oh/ohio_trump_vs_clinton-

5634.html 

80 http://mic.com/articles/136039/sanders-has-a-30-point-lead-over-clinton-in-west-

virginia-here-s-why-that-matters#.LTzdbXMwW 

81 http://mic.com/articles/136039/sanders-has-a-30-point-lead-over-clinton-in-west-

virginia-here-s-why-that-matters#.LTzdbXMwW

82http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-dem-primary-live-updates-and-

results/2016/02/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-hispanic-voters-fight-219578 

83http://www.factcheck.org/2016/02/trump-and-the-black-vote/ 

84https://www.currentaffairs.org/2016/02/unless-the-democrats-nominate-sanders-

a-trump-nomination-means-a-trump-presidency 

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42% in 2013 after the last major election (compared to 25% Republican and 31%

Democrat). And Senator Sanders is – by far – the leading candidate among those

who identify as Independent, 45% over Donald Trump’s 25% and Secretary Clinton’s

9%.85 The Independent voting block has become the most important voting block in

this Country, and Secretary Clinton polls abysmally in it.Simply put, as many are starting to realize, “backing Hillary in general—would

be, in the words of Donald Trump, a disaster.”86 It is entirely possible that she will

lose to Donald Trump.

The Fate of this Country Is Now Hanging in the Balance.

Right now, the American electorate is sitting on the sidelines watching the

dominant political establishment crumble and die because of its failed economic

policy. As this death escalates, politicians will be forced to cling to a sinking ship or

to jump sides to one of the two new emerging ideologies – nationalism and

democratic socialism. Some will do this obviously (such as Chris Christie and Sarah

Palin publicly endorsing Trump), and others quietly (such as Nancy Pelosi

denouncing the role of super-delegates87 or Elizabeth Warren declining to endorse

Secretary Clinton). This election has nothing to do with the candidates, andeverything to do with which of those two policies will emerge as the new dominant

ideology in Washington, D.C.

Neoliberalism is failing and will last. Nationalism will end in war. Democratic

socialism is our only hope. America needs to rally behind Senator Sanders – not

because of who he is – but because of what he believes in.

It is almost too later. Currently Secretary Clinton has 597 pledged delegates to

Senator Sanders’ 406. Super Delegates can change their mind (despite the

85 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/9/17/1422117/-Poll-of-Independents-Sanders-

45-Trump-26-HRC-9 

86 

http://www.salon.com/2016/02/28/the_case_against_hillary_clinton_this_is_the_disa

ster_democrats_must_avoid/ 

87 http://www.inquisitr.com/2852213/nancy-pelosi-just-dropped-presidential-

campaign-bombshell/ 

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impression that many media outlets are giving), and since there are 469

congressional seats running this fall (34 Senate and all 435 House of

Representatives) while the political establishment is crumbling, the idea that Super

Delegates would be used to overturn a clear majority winner in the primaries is

unlikely. Senator Sanders still has a path to victory, but his window in which to doso is narrowing.88 

People are starting to panic, and rightly so. The New York Times committed

what would otherwise be an unacceptable journalistic act in publicly leaking off-the-

record comments about Donald Trump to try – in what will ultimately be a futile

attempt – to discredit him.89 Donald Trump cannot be stopped – he must be

defeated. Back in 1932, British political scientist Sir Arthur Salter spoke at a time

when the world was facing the same type of crisis that is staring us down today,

with the same choice between continued nationalism or embarking upon what

would eventually be the path to the New Deal: “This is the specific task of our age. If

we fail, the only alternatives are chaos or the substitution of a different system

inconsistent with political and personal liberty, perhaps after an intervening period

of collapse and anarchy.”90 

I will be absolutely damned if I am going to sit by and let my children grow up in

a Country that is marching defiantly down the same path as the Third Reich.

 America needs a political revolution.

88 http://inthesetimes.com/article/18913/bernie-sanders-delegate-path-to-victory-

super-tuesday;http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/bernie-sanders-doesnt-need-

momentum-he-needs-to-win-these-states/ 89 https://theintercept.com/2016/03/01/the-new-york-times-strange-behavior-in-the-controversy-over-

trumps-off-the-record-comments/

90 https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/1932-10-01/future-economic-nationalism