As the Democratic candidates square off in a debate tonight in South Carolina, polls have shown that the race has been tightening in Iowa and New Hampshire, and potentially even nationally. Frontrunner Hillary Clinton has been expected to win the Iowa caucus, but recent polls show that she is in a neck-and-neck race with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Senator Sanders, benefitting from his close proximity to New Hampshire, has long polled well in the Granite State, but some polls have shown a commanding lead for the establishment candidate.
Senator Sanders has based his campaign upon the need for a political revolution that strips the political power from billionaires and corporate interests, while Clinton has coined herself as a “progressive that gets things done”, very much stressing her general election strength as a major reason to support her candidacy. Countering Clinton’s “electability” argument, Sanders has emphasized the enthusiasm of his base of support and the fact that he often polls better than Clinton against many of the Republican candidates, especially GOP frontrunner Donald Trump.
Bernie Sanders outpolls Trump by 15 points, while Clinton leads the leading GOP candidate by 10 points in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. This polling result matches previous polls that show Sanders actual the better general election candidate, particularly when pitted up against the right-wing insurgent candidate. There seems to be an anti-establishment sentiment widely felt by 2016 voters and Trump could launch many of the same attacks against Clinton that he has made against Republican challengers regarding ties to special corporate interests; those same attacks won’t work against Bernie Sanders.
Bernie Sanders has already changed the Democratic debate around many issues, including marijuana legalization and Drug War reform, and he has already elevated the conversation regarding federal cannabis law reform by introducing a bill to end federal prohibition by removing marijuana from the list of federally controlled substances. While Senator Sanders should already be commended for helping move marijuana legalization into the political mainstream, but nothing will move us more mainstream, at the moment, than Bernie Sanders winning the Democratic nomination, and, of course, the White House in November. Then, the entire nation will really #FeelThe Bern.
(Featured photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing/Brendan McDermid)
