First of all, I live in Illinois, and while Bernie Sanders may be surging in the national polls as of today, the Iowa caucuses don't begin until February 1st, and the New Hampshire primary doesn't happen until a week after Iowa. More importantly, the primaries in Illinois don't happen until March 15th, and before that happens there will be primaries in the two aforementioned states as well as Nevada, South Carolina, and the first big primary election on Super Tuesday on March 1st. And before I get to vote here in Illinois there are primaries in Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, and Nebraska. So it's very possible that by the time I get to vote for the Democratic candidate the nomination may very well be wrapped up by then, if not in actual delegates, then in momentum.
Second, most people have not been paying that much attention to the presidential race, and while most of the focus has been on the GOP side and particularly on that freaky-haired real estate developer and reality TV star from New York City whose name need not be mentioned further, those who have been paying more attention to local matters like getting their kids ready for the new school year and how their favorite football team will do this season have been rolling their eyes at all of the news coverage about the GOP clown car and Hillary Clinton's alleged email controversy. Yet while the national polls may make headlines on the nightly newscasts and 24 hour news networks, the race itself is going to be decided on a state-by-state basis, and that will have to play itself out.
Third, the media itself has been negligent to the edge of near criminality in covering the race on both sides. While they have been chasing the shiny object brought out by the freaky New York real estate developer who is promising to deport all illegal immigrants and some naturalized citizens and build a wall all along the Mexican border, no one in the media is challenging him on the merits of the idea, particularly when our roads, bridges, sewers, and electrical grid are crumbling, and though this candidate claims to be a builder. Meanwhile, this same real estate developer has been savvy in attacking his GOP opponents' records, but the media is loathe to actually confirm or refute these accusations by actually doing the journalistic research to prove them. As far as the Democratic side, they have been dismissive of Bernie Sanders from the get go, and even though the poll numbers have risen to the point where he can no longer be ignored, they are still attempting to dismiss him by bringing up Joe Biden and his poll numbers, even though the Vice President has not officially declared himself to be in the race yet. In addition, they keep incessantly harping on Hillary Clinton's email server "controversy", even though the details were already revealed last summer and yielded nothing of substance, and ignoring the fact that most people could care less about this issue and find it irrelevant to the campaign.
Fourth, it would help mightily if somebody would cover the actual issues that are on people's minds, particularly issues about income inequality, jobs, police brutality, education, foreign policy, and climate change. While one particular news network has been using their airwaves to demonize those who are being victimized by said issues, the rest of the media has been dropping the ball on connecting the dots between those issues and how the candidates are preparing to deal with them.
Fifth, it would help considerably if the Democrats would get more debates on television. It would, 1) get the focus off the of the GOP clown car, if only for a few minutes, and 2) would get the Democratic candidates to articulate their positions on the issues facing the country in front of actual voters. While I believe Bernie, Hillary, Joe Biden and the other candidates probably agree on 90% of the issues, there are some clear and significant differences among the candidates which need to be addressed publicly. I believe Bernie would be more inclined to tackle Wall Street while Hillary may be more hawkish on foreign policy matters. The public deserves to know this; thus more debates.
Last, I'm not trying to be a wet blanket to anyone supporting Bernie or Hillary; I'm just letting people know I won't have a voice in this matter for quite awhile. Regardless of who wins the Democratic primary, I will most likely support that candidate in the general election next November. But also remember that whoever we nominate in the Democratic primaries to run for the White House, even if that person wins in November it will mean little to nothing if we still have the same people in Congress.
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