- 3) I know the Berniecrats don't wanna hear this, but some of their policies and messaging is simply really unpopular. Eliminating student debt is a winning issue and from a realpolitik electoral strategy perspective, they should definitely run with that as long as they can. The anti-wall street stuff Sanders talked about plays really well too as long as they avoid using the word "socialism." However, eliminating all private health insurance, their foreign policy agenda, branding themselves as "socialists," decriminalizing hard drugs are all things that simply do not play well with most voters. They need to do a better job of choosing their battles and can't insist on dying on every hill they encounter.
What? To the extent that Americans have foreign policy views other than following the dominant trend in their party at any given time, they seem to prefer non-interventionism. And Sanders doesn't come across as a radical like, say, Corbyn.
