You can blame Bernie Sanders for Hillary Clinton’s unfavorables going up if you like, but whatever the cause that is the direction they’re heading, and Bernie isn’t stopping. We campaign with the election rules we have, not the election rules we wish we had.
If Bernie does not manage to catch up to Clinton in the primary, we are incredibly lucky that the GOP frontrunners are also widely disliked — she polls well against Trump, and is tied with Cruz. Yes, she will get a post-primary bump, but so will the GOP nominee. If we get unlucky and draw Cruz, we’ll look to be in the fight of our lives.
How can she bring down her unfavorables?
One idea, which I’m actually surprised she has not taken up, would be to pick at least one issue to clearly be on Bernie’s left/outside. It could be climate, it could be election reform, racial justice, minimum wage (basic income / negative income tax? anyone?). There are strategic pros and cons to these or any other choices she could make — what will make the biggest difference to the Democratic wing of the Democratic party for the least annoyance of the GOP?
She’d have to be convincing enough that it isn’t dismissed as opportunism, so this would have to happen before she clinches. Ideally it would be something where she could do something substantial immediately (e.g., shutting down her SuperPAC and/or returning some corporate money if she decided to go with election reform) rather than just making promises for if she gets to the White House.
What do you think? If this makes sense, what would be a good issue for her to recapture some support from the left? If you have other ideas about how she can bring down her unfavorables, please share those as well.