Has his time come?
by Tom Sullivan
"The soulless pursuit of profit has vulgarized American society," writes Charlie Pierce. Looking at Donald the Vulgar, Pierce sees a man whose time has come:
... He has looked at the American political landscape as it has evolved since 1980 and decided that it has become just the kind of place where Donald Trump could get himself elected. Unfortunately, he was correct in that assessment. He was a vulgarian in an unusually vulgarian time and he is now a vulgarian in an age in which vulgarianism has become so normalized that we hardly notice its most deleterious consequences any more, or we call them "freedom," which is the most vulgar thing I can think of.
Yet even as Trump pursued profit, Bernie Sanders toiled through those same years at the sort of unglamourous civil rights and social justice efforts that never pay well. As Republican candidates make vulgar obeisance before the likes of the Koch Brothers or, as Pierce dubs him, "international vice lord, Sheldon Adelson," Bernie Sanders' growing popularity may signify rejection of the vulgarian model.
Has his time come:
A stunning new poll has Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) beating presumptive Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire.
Sanders has eclipsed Clinton by a 44 to 37 percent margin, according to a new Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald poll that was first reported by the Boston newspaper Tuesday evening.
The Guardian has background:
This marks the first time Sanders has taken a lead in any poll. By contrast, in a poll conducted by Franklin Pierce University eight years ago, in September 2007, Clinton led Barack Obama by 36% to 18%.
While the poll may be an outlier, the very fact that Sanders, an unkempt septuagenarian socialist, is leading Clinton in any poll raises eyebrows. This marks the first time that Sanders has registered a lead over Clinton in any state or national poll. In past polls in New Hampshire, Clinton had maintained a narrow but comfortable lead in that state’s first-in-the-nation primary.
Among the eyebrows being raised may be bushy, septuagenarian ones.