party leader so that influxes of cash from Sainsbury, Zabludowicz, Levy, Ecclestone and the like
could combine with a rabid media to shoo-in the candidate that they wanted.
For both Corbyn and Sanders, new social media has been a gamechanger, upending previous
assumptions. Initially, the Democratic Party establishment clearly regarded Hillary Clinton as the
anointed and decided that saying anything negative about Sanders would just draw unwanted
attention to his candidacy. The establishment tactic was to schedule the debates infrequently and
at unpopular times which in retrospect proved quite effective.
The more voters saw of Sanders the more they liked him and seemingly the more they saw of
Clinton, the less they liked her but her early victories gave her crucial delegates. If Sanders had
had more exposure earlier on, it is likely that he would have a lot more delegates at the
Democratic Convention by now.
Polls show that many of his supporters are not instinctively going to vote for Clinton. They
support Sanders precisely because of his distance from New Democrats and the Clinton family business. This is dangerous ground as show by polls indicating that in a race between Trump and
Clinton, she is far less assured of success than Sanders. To be fair, Trumps thuggishly
authoritarian attitudes make him a frightening prospect, so we can only hope that Sanders supporters will hold their noses and vote for Hillary if necessary.
As a less sanguinary wish, many Bernie supporters, even if they discount the chances of
assassination that she herself has raised, are watching with keen interest the FBI investigation of
the former Secretary of State over her definitely careless and possibly criminal use of emails. An
indictment before the Convention could, of course, mean that all bets are off.
And as a legacy, the Platform Committee that decides the policies Democrats will fight on have a
significant and vociferous Sanders contingent, while he is lending support to like-minded
candidates for Congress. Win or lose, we have not seen the end of the Sanders database.