Can an unabashedly progressive presidential campaign actually win this November?

By Jim Hightower
Hightower Lowdown
January's Lowdown,
January, 2016, Volume 18, Number 1


When I crossed paths with a Democratic Party campaign consultant in Austin, last month,
I suggested he come out to the local IBEW hall Tuesday night to hear Bernie Sanders, adding that the Vermont senator was pondering a run for the presidency.

"You gotta be kiddin' me," the political pro snorted.
"Bernie Sanders? Let me tell ya, his chances are slim and none, and Slim don't live in Bernie's precinct.
First of all, no one south of Greenwich Village ever heard of him.
Second, who's gonna vote for some old senator from a tiny state of Birkenstock-wearers damn near Canada?
And for chrissake, Hightower, he's Jewish.
Plus he's some sort of socialist, isn't he?'

So that scoffer was a no-show; but we didn't have room for him anyway.

We had expected about 200 people, which is how many the hall would seat - but nearly 500 Texans showed up that night to hear the undiluted, populist message of this senator "no one ever heard of."

Austin was one of the stops on a cross-country trip that Bernie was taking to assess whether an unabashedly progressive, movement-building presidential campaign could rally any substantial support.
If he ran, he planned to go right at the moneyed elites who've thoroughly corrupted our politics and rigged our economy to squeeze the life out of the middle class.
But would anyone follow?
Were people really ready to do this, and could a 70-something-year-old, notoriously brusque Vermonter with a conspicuous Brooklyn accent be the one to spark such a
modern-day American revolt?
He wasn't sure, and even if it might work, he assumed it would be a slow build.

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