As reported in last week’s Trends Journal, several hours before the ballots were counted in the Super Tuesday primaries, the Democratic Party machine, as it did in 2016, began to rig the race to make sure Senator Bernie Sanders would not win the nomination.
Despite Joe Biden’s stumble out of the block at the start of race – tripping up in Iowa, New Hampshire, and especially in Nevada following a series of uninspiring misstatements and gaffes – the anti-Bernie Dems picked “Uncle” Joe up and thrust him forward into the race.
Pete Buttigieg, Senator Amy Klobuchar and billionaire Tom Steyer, other contenders in the race who were drawing votes from him, withdrew from future primaries and threw enthusiastic support to Biden.
Then came a flood of Democratic governors, Congress members, and Democratic bigwigs pouring out full support for Biden, including Beto O’Rourke, his former contender from Texas.
And it worked. Despite earlier polls showing Sanders with an 11-point lead going into Super Tuesday, Biden beat him in a major upset, sweeping states Sanders was favored to win.
On Super Tuesday, Bernie did win California, Colorado, Utah, and his home state of Vermont, but, at the end of the day, he trailed Biden in the total delegate count at 573 to 664.
Two Man Race to the Finish Line
Shortly after VP Biden’s surprise string of victories on Super Tuesday, two more competitive runners in the race for the nomination dropped out.
Last Wednesday, after performing miserably in the Super Tuesday primaries (though winning in the unincorporated territory of American Samoa in the South Pacific Ocean), Michael “Billionaire” Bloomberg, who spent over $600 million of his fortune as a contestant in The Presidential Reality Show®, dropped out of the race. Bloomberg then enthusiastically endorsed VP Biden, promising significant financial support.
A day later, after a poor showing in almost every state on the ballet Super Tuesday, including a third-place finish in her home state of Massachusetts, Senator Elizabeth Warren withdrew from race. Warren has yet to endorse either Sanders or Biden.
Missing Millennials
Following last Tuesday’s poor showing, Sander’s voiced disappointment on the smaller-than-expected turnout by younger voters. While he did win the youth vote in every state, not enough of them turned out.
With Millennials, angry about being saddled down with a trillion dollars of college debt, stagnant wages, and a government favoring corporate interests, polls showed some 70 percent of Millennials (ages 23-38) preferred a socialist candidate.
After the loss, Mr. Sanders stated, “Have we been as successful as I would hope in bringing young people in? The answer is no… I think that will change in the general election, but I will be honest with you, we have not done as well with bringing young people into the process. It is not easy.”
The Polling Director of Harvard’s Institute of Politics pointed out, “When I look at the collection of data, from multiple sources, there is no evidence of an increase or surge in the youth vote… In fact, there is considerable evidence to suggest that the youth vote is flat or declining relative to the previous election cycles.”
In North Carolina, for example, where Joe Biden beat Bernie Sanders by a wider-than-expected margin, turnout overall was up 17 percent, but youth turnout was down almost 10 percent.
While young voters came out in higher numbers in four of the states, turnout was flat in two states and declined in six, including an 18 percent drop in New Hampshire and a 20 percent drop in Texas.
Just as Donald Trump successfully used his role as an “outsider” promising to shake things up, Bernie has leveraged his role as a political independent promising to bring forth a social revolution.
So, why haven’t they come out in larger numbers so far?
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: “By their numbers, you shall know them”… the number of Millennials uninspired by Sanders’ campaign and platform, not the media hype that the lines were too long and the voting processes to complicated, kept them from the polls.
Considering their ages, Sanders at 78 and Biden at 77, Grand Pops Joe and Bernie are too old and lack the emotional appeal to drive young voters to the polls.
Indeed, a factor playing to the detriment of Senator Sanders is his physical fitness following his hospitalization last September for a heart condition and his subsequent refusal to release his full medical records… as he had promised.
Also, with Democratic voters listing their #1 priority as beating Donald Trump, polls among them show Biden is the best to candidate defeat Trump by a 2-to-1 majority.
Sanders’ #1 campaign issue of “Medicare for All” came in at distant second.
TREND FORECAST: Joe Biden has the momentum to win the needed delegate votes as the Democratic nomination to challenge President Trump in November. Therefore, should Sanders lose tonight’s Michigan primary, which polls show him trailing Biden by 24 points, he may soon drop out of the race.
