Monday, October 5, 2015

Sanders, Fiorina, Trump and the Changing Political Landscape or Not?


So I am definitely not willing to concede that the party elites (Clinton, Rubio, Bush, etc.) won't be the presidential party candidates.  But this article from Vox and the video above are interesting.  Prior to 2000 the party elites won all the primaries, but since then far fewer have (dare I mention that Obama was 31% points down on Clinton 12 years ago).  But to quote Erza Klein:

"the inside game - courting donors, winning endorsements, endorsements, influencing the primary calendar, securing key committee assignments, luring top staffers, working with interest groups - makes up the bulk of politics."

Indeed a lot of people credit Tom Daschle's endorsement of Obama as the key that led him to get many of the insiders in his campaign.

But Klein, in the article argues that other factors (can you say social media) are changing the landscape.  As Vox points out when Bernie Sanders is mentioned in an article social media goes crazy and so news outlets want to report on him and when you get more press, you get more public support.   It is still too early to know what is going to happen, but as a teacher I love to enter a government class and feel the buzz generated by non traditional candidates.  

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