ALASKA, HAWAII AND WASHINGTON ARE NOT ORDINARY VICTORIES FOR BERNIE SANDERS

When a candidate receives 55 percent of the vote, it’s considered a wide margin. And 60 or 65 percent is considered a “sweeping victory.” But Bernie didn’t get 65 percent, nor 70 percent. In Alaska he didn’t even get 80 percent, but rather 82 percent! Such massive support for Sanders is really incredible. It is not at all common, particularly when a candidate lacks backing from any sector of the establishment: the Democratic Party machine and leadership, the corporate media and the business community, all of which is solidly behind Hillary Clinton, while he has just modest support from the leadership of organized labor.

According to the media, his victories were the result of “liberal” votes. That’s only part of the story. The other part has to do with the economic situation in the country. It has to do with students who graduate and aren’t getting jobs in their field, or aren’t getting jobs at all. At the same time they are saddled with student debts that they may never be able to pay back. The surprising results of these elections, in both Democratic and Republican parties, are a clear demonstration that the “recession” – the longest in the history of capitalism – is still not over in spite of the official statistics on unemployment.

The support of the millennials is also extremely significant because of its medium and long-term effects. This is the same group that supported Obama in 2008, and subsequently became disillusioned and in some cases felt deceived. And it is the same group that participated in the Occupy movement. Its members are likely to have a major impact on U.S. politics in the future and not just in the electoral arena. True to form, the corporate media fails to report on this dimension of the Sanders phenomenon. Instead it focuses on the Republican Party circus, the issue of terrorism and banalities that are of no significance at all, while it skips over the real issues that concern people and account for their opinions and actions.