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Tuesday, June 13, 2017

What About the People's Party?

Bernie Sanders gave a speech the other day to a group that wants to form a new party.  It would be called the People's Party and it would be a true progressive movement without the centrist/moderate factions that the Democrats have.

Just imagine what would happen if the People's Party actually came into existence.  If the crowd at the Sanders' speech indicates anything, the members of the People's Party would be young white voters.  Minorities like African Americans and Hispanics were sparsely represented.  The People's Party might well be able to win seats in Congress by taking some districts currently held by Democrats.  More likely, however, were the People's Party to run candidates in most districts, the result would be a Republican landslide.  Think of a district that would normally go to the Democrats by 55 to 45%.  If the People's Party candidate took 20% of the vote, nearly all of that would come from the Democrat.  That would convert a safe Democrat district to one won by the GOP.  Senate elections would be harder for the People's Party to win, but their candidates could still toss the result to the Republicans.

Best of all would be the effect of the People's Party on a presidential election.  Assuming Sanders himself is the candidate, he could take a sizeable part of the popular vote.  The bulk of that vote, however would come at the expense of the Democrats not the Republicans.  Indeed, the presence of a People's Party candidate in 2020 is a guarantee of a GOP victory.

 

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