Dear Mr. Sanders,
I know that time is running out. You would probably have to do it by Monday, and it may be too late. But if it were at all possible, please consider running for president as an independent candidate. If there ever was a time for an independent to run for president, it is now. Never before have two candidates running for the two major parties have had unfavorable ratings as high as they are: More than half of all Americans dislike both candidates. That is huge. When you were running against Hillary Clinton, national polls consistently showed you stronger and more liked than her, and you were consistently more likely to beat Trump than she would. You got about 45% of the delegates running against her, and these were among Democrats. There are more independent voters today than there are Democrats or Republicans. You are an independent. And more Americans like you than either Hillary or Trump.
I realize that you would be possibly disenfranchising yourself from the Democratic party by running for president independently, but based on recent email leaks, it looks like you were already disenfranchised from the party before you even decided to run against Hillary. In truth, the Democrats should want you to run, just in case any more emails should “leak out” that devastates their Golden Girl in the future and give the presidency to Trump.
I realize that some people think that if you ran as an independent, you might steal votes from Hillary, and give the election to Trump. That’s what Mr. Trump thinks, and why he wants you to run. I used to think that, too. But now I don’t. I realize that in order for you to win, you would need a majority of electoral votes—270 to be exact—or the House of Representatives chooses for us, which being a majority of Republicans, would likely vote for Mr. Trump. And in a three-way election I used to think that there would be no way, as popular as you are compared to the other two candidates, that you could get over 50% of the popular vote. But I have come to realize—that you don’t need 50% of the popular vote in a three-way election to be able to get 270 electoral votes. I believe that if you got only 40% of the popular vote, you could win it.
Why? In 1980, when Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter, he won in a landslide, getting 489 electoral votes to his only 49. Yet, Reagan only got 50.7% of the popular vote, and only had a margin of victory of 9.7%. That 9.7% margin of victory in the popular vote was enough for Reagan to win in a landslide. So, what if you could get only 40% of the popular vote against Hillary and Trump? That would mean that they would each get about 30% of the remaining vote, a 10% margin of victory over each of them, which should be enough—maybe not to get 489 electoral votes—but very likely to get at least 270.
You are the most popular candidate, Mr. Sanders. And it doesn’t matter whether Hillary or Trump wins in a two-way election. If either of them win, the corporations win, and the people will have lost. You have started a political revolution, Mr. Sanders. It is time to finish it.
Please run as an independent candidate, Mr. Sanders. And do it now.
Thank you.