Donald Trump beat out Hillary Clinton for the presidency by virtue of the electoral college on Tuesday, make no mistake.
He lost the popular vote by more than 300,000 votes at current count, despite a significant electoral gain, making this the fourth time in American history that a Republican candidate beat a Democratic candidate despite losing the popular vote (aside from the famous Bush v. Gore case of 2000, two incidents occurred in the 1800s). This is insanely unfair, and the American people did not elect Trump.
But if it were Bernie Sanders on the ballot against Trump, Democrats would have taken the victory and the presidency.
In fact, if Sanders were on the ballot, Democrats in general might have taken the victory across the board, and the moral high ground, on election night. Instead, the party was tainted by the nation’s extreme distrust for Hillary Clinton, and Republicans won the White House, Senate and House. This is undoubtedly a great night for them, almost as great as winning money in the iGaming industry. Justified or unjustified, Americans despise her, and have done so openly for years.
Unfortunately, DNC officials were strongly on her side, and not keen on listening to the opinions of the American voters, even their own. So instead, they promoted Clinton’s campaign aggressively, and despite theoretically being on the same side as Sanders, sabotaged and dismissed his campaign.
The fact was, Sanders carried an appeal that Clinton did not. Clinton needed to convince Americans to hate her less; Sanders needed only to introduce himself. His policies crossed party lines and strongly appealed to the educated, the left and the independent.
Exit polls from Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania in the Democrat primaries showed that Sanders did better among white men, who ultimately helped give Trump the election. He also did better among independents, who also came out for Trump.
In other words, chances are the people who were unable to decide until the last minute between Clinton and Trump, who ultimately decided on voting for Trump, would likely have rallied behind Sanders long before election night, earning him the election swiftly.
Clinton was a divisive figure who Democrats knew would not attract any Republican votes whatsoever; relying on Trump’s awfulness is not good enough. Sanders, on the other hand, with his history of earnest desire for change, real activism and crotchety, take-no-shit attitude as well as a general sense of uncorruptability, was the perfect mix between anti-establishment and experienced politician.
Experience, of course, was the platform on which the DNC chose to run Clinton’s campaign. As a famous name, they figured, as well as a long-time politician who was catapulted to national attention by her husband’s political success, she should be both familiar enough and experienced enough to appeal to Americans.
They were wrong. And Sanders would have been the better choice, but instead the DNC shot themselves in the foot and ensured that Clinton was the nominee.
And today, Donald Trump is president-elect.
Many of us have rallied for Clinton in the past few months out of a sense of desperation and an urgent need to defeat Trump. But make no mistake, we knew months ago that the DNC and the Democrat voters made the wrong decision, and we knew it was a dangerous one.