Bernie Sanders Says Low Voter Turnout Led to Loss in Nevada | TIME

Bernie Sanders Says Low Voter Turnout Led to Loss in Nevada | TIME

"What I’ve said over and over again, we will do well when young people, when working-class people come out,” Sanders said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “We do not do well when the voter turnout is not large. We did not do as good a job as I had wanted to bring out a large turnout.”

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That's a bad sign for Bernie Sanders, who is right when he says he needs a "political revolution."  Bernie is in an incredibly difficult position because he doesn't have a party to lead. The Democratic Party is not a democratic socialist party, and Bernie has never been a Democrat. Now he''s running for the nomination of the party, but the party will fight him until he drops out. He, on the other hand, can't launch a full-on attack on the party, because he needs partisan Democrats to vote for him. And he can't really attack the last two Democratic presidents, even though both of them are against him, because a Democratic candidate has to say the last two Democratic presidents were successful. Bernie is trying to get around these problems by creating a social movement. But there are few things in politics harder to do than creating, sustaining, and leading a successful social movement. Bernie's movement is only a few months old and what they did in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina is impressive, but it is heavily reliant on demographic groups that are notorious for low turnout, especially young voters and low-income people. Bernie is trying to be a transformative figure in American politics, like FDR and Ronald Reagan. They remade their parties, creating new governing coalitions. But they weren't outsiders, like Bernie. Reagan had a record as a Republican governor when he ran for President, and FDR was a lifelong Democrat. Both had solid connections to powerful emerging forces within their parties. They were influential figures with clout, and didn't try to do end runs around their parties. The Democratic Party has intentionally sidelined its left wing for the last 30+ years. I don't see how Bernie can stage a takeover of that party, coming from outside it. I think that would take somebody who has a ton of credibility within the party. Maybe Bernie is starting something that will get picked up by others, but I just don't see his path to the nomination this year.