An interesting bit of news from Politico about Democratic Party strategy in Red States. According to Politico, "...the suddenly ascendant left — its populist overtones becoming part of the mainstream Democratic pitch — is worrying Democrats who want to compete on Republican-leaning turf." But why should this be a problem? Bernie Sanders has shown that it is easy to compete on Republican turf as a Democrat when you act like a real Democrat and not Republican lite! Unprecedented turnouts in places like Dallas, Phoenix, Houston and Seattle, big cities in consistently red states, show that there is now an ideological populist surge everywhere and that the message of "restoring the middle class" is a powerful one. An August 19 Huffington Post piece declares, "Almost Every Major Poll Shows Bernie Sanders Challenging or Defeating Clinton and Republicans..."
Bernie is able to create bipartisan agreement on opposition to the XL Keystone Pipeline, something many Republican voters oppose. He has also gotten bipartisan voter support in opposing free trade agreements such as the Transpacific Partnership, which is mostly about protecting intellectual property rights of big corporations (especially big pharmaceutical companies) to the detriment of average consumers. There is a sense among all voters, right and left alike, that the entire US political system is owned, lock, stock and barrel by big business. They're right which is why Sanders is currently having such a tremendous surge in the polls.
