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Dems could be enjoying GOP’s troubles a bit too much

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While the political circus that is the Republican presidential contest has been entertaining self-satisfied Democrats in recent weeks, there are ever-increasing signs of trouble in paradise. The vaunted Hillary juggernaut, which far too many Democrats still see as their ticket to four more years, appears to be coming off the rails.

Perhaps the spectacle of “The Donald” and all he has wrought in the Republican race has distracted Democrats from the fact that Clinton’s campaign has, so far, been a train wreck. From the drip-drip of her State Department emails, to questions about Bill and Hillary’s use of political power for personal enrichment, to her refusal to state her views on issues of major importance to most Americans, Hillary is, once again, exposing the weaknesses that cost her the nomination in 2008.

And recent polls show it’s all taking a toll. Clinton’s favorability rating in many key battleground states is now deeply underwater, rivaling Trump himself in terms of negatives. Honesty and trustworthiness are two key factors that continue to weigh down the Clinton campaign. At a time when the public’s trust in the political process and the billionaires that increasingly feed the entire beast is at an all-time low, Clinton’s deep ties to Wall Street have left her compromised in the eyes of many Americans— and with justification.

She’s a military hawk who voted for the Iraq War. She won’t take a position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, another troublesome trade deal, backed by Wall Street, that our own government won’t let us read. She won’t support the push for a major increase in the minimum wage (might upset Wall Street); she’s been mum on the unneeded Keystone XL Pipeline, and she won’t support a return to the kind of regulatory frameworks, such as the Glass-Steagall Act, that would help prevent the kind of speculative financial collapses that we saw in 2008. Of course, it was her husband Bill who signed the repeal of Glass-Steagall, a Roosevelt-era reform that prevented banks from wildly speculating with federally-insured deposits, and who ultimately set the stage for the 2008 collapse. Wall Street, of course, wants looser regulation, not more, and why not? For the big boys on the Street, it’s heads they win, tails we lose.

What the past couple months have revealed to many Democrats is that their once seemingly safe road to the White House looks increasingly littered with dangerous potholes, all needing to be negotiated by a badly-compromised, secrecy-obsessed candidate. Recent polling has her losing to most of the bigger-name Republican candidates in key swing states.

The only bright spot has been Bernie Sanders, the Independent Senator from Vermont who is everything Hillary is not. He’s the opposite of stage-managed, with his unruly hair, his rarely-offered smile, and with the kind of political courage typically only seen in marginal, issues candidates.

Sanders is an issues candidate, to be sure, who calls for opening up Medicare to all, boosting Social Security benefits, increasing the minimum wage to $15, and providing free tuition at all public colleges and universities, but the huge crowds he’s been attracting around the country and his steady rise in the polls, shows he’s no longer operating on the margins.

He is, without question, the most formidable threat to Hillary’s coronation.

Hillary, of course, still has the support of the party establishment, which lives mostly in splendid isolation from reality. Even so, it’s beginning to dawn on more and more Democrats that Hillary is damaged goods and that Sanders has the potential to appeal not just to Democrats but to voters across the spectrum who are desperate for a candidate who isn’t bought and paid for by big money. Looking at the current crop of credible candidates, from either party, there’s only two who aren’t dependent on billionaire and millionaire sugar daddies— one is Sanders (who refuses to take their money) and the other is Trump, who is one of them already.

It’s the most troubling hallmark of the post-Citizens United political landscape. The parties and campaigns are now secondary to the truly enormous political machinery being erected by the nation’s plutocracy, including the likes of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, and David and Charles Koch, who are expected to spend nearly $1 billion on the 2016 election in order to keep the world safe for Big Oil.

Hillary will, no doubt, offer lip service about political reform, just as candidate Obama did in 2008, but ultimately only Sanders can be credible on the subject. Hillary’s campaign has talked of raising $2.5 billion for its 2016 campaign. Rest assured, almost all of it will come from the top one percent. If anyone thinks Hillary is going to upset the apple cart that has directed virtually all of the new income generated over the last half dozen years into the pockets of those at the very top, they’re living in an alternative universe.

Hillary backers argue Sanders, a 73-year old, self-described democratic socialist (like most European politicians), isn’t electable. In truth, neither Hillary nor Sanders is probably electable without the kind of surge in turnout we experienced in 2008 and 2012. For my money, the candidate most likely to inspire Americans to get off the couch and vote for the kind of change they’re desperate to see, is Sanders, by a mile. Polls show large majorities of Americans support the positions Sanders is espousing, and he rates much higher than Hillary on questions about honesty and integrity. Sanders may come across like a grumpy old man, but he’s attracting huge numbers of young people to his speeches. And it’s not just college towns, either. Last week, the Sanders’ campaign held a live-streamed meet-up at over 3,700 homes and businesses around the country, attracting roughly 100,000 supporters in big and small towns alike. Nine people showed up to one of the meetings in Soudan, and another 14 showed up for the same event at a local business near Cook. Talk about reaching to the grassroots.

If there’s an overall message for the Democrats it’s that the time for complacency is over. What’s needed now is some serious soul-searching about what kind of party the Democrats want to be. If it’s to be the party of Wall Street, NAFTA, and never-ending military adventures, then Hillary it is. But if the party wants to return to its roots and actually start working for the interests of average Americans again, it’s going to need to go in another direction. If so, now’s the time for the course adjustment.