Policies proposed by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders ahead of his endorsement for Hillary Clinton were so “popular” that would have ultimately gotten him elected the US president, an analyst says.
Sanders supported his party’s nominee after he failed to win the primary round of the 2016 presidential election, out of which Republican candidate Donald Trump finally emerged victor by gaining more electoral votes.
Trump won partly because he “crossed over to Rust Belt states, which are areas of the United States, that have a lot of heavy industry and where mass unemployment and poverty have been generated by neoliberal economics of the kind that Hillary Clinton is actually a champion,” said Keith Preston, the chief editor of AttacktheSystem.com, in a Sunday phone interview with Press TV.
He was commenting on the results of a pre-election poll, which showed that Sanders would have beaten Trump if he had been nominated instead of Clinton by the Democrats.
According to a national survey conducted by Gravis Marketing two days before the November 8 presidential election, he would have received 56 percent of the vote for the White House, while Trump would have won 44 percent.
It also suggested that Sanders would have garnered more support among third party (Libertarian and Green party) voters.
“The evidence indicates that minor parties hurt Hillary Clinton more than Donald Trump in a number of key states where he won like Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, and Pennsylvania,” Preston noted. “If those [third party] votes had actually gone to Hillary Clinton, she likely would have won in those states and therefore would have been elected president.”
The reality TV star, on the other hand, managed “to improve the performance of the Republicans among racial and ethnic minorities.”
Apart from that, added the Virginia-based commentator, the former secretary of state and New York Senator was “such an unsavory candidate.”
“She was not an inspiring candidate; people in her own party frequently resented having to vote for her. It was widely believed that she had rigged the nominating process to prevent Sanders.”
Preston further noted that the socialist candidate “has been “more popular with many key demographics that helped Trump win.”
The Vermont senator has mostly been silent in response to speculations that he could have beaten Trump, saying the Democrats should focus on the future.