favorability

Bernie Sanders — not Barack Obama, not Joe Biden, and certainly not Jill Stein—is now the most popular politician in America according to a new Economist/YouGov poll.

While Hillary Clinton’s favorability has remained stuck below 50% ever since she launched her 2016 presidential campaign, Sanders’ popularity climbed and climbed and climbed even as he narrowly lost the nomination fight against Clinton.

sandersfavorability

What does this tell us?

It tells us that the vast majority of the American people approve of Sanders’ decision to forcefully endorse Hillary Clinton for president.

It tells us that the vast majority of the American people respect the way Sanders conducted himself at the Democratic National Convention and afterwards as a class act and a team player.

It tells us that the vast majority of the American people understand that Sanders put the greater good — the defeat of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign — ahead of his ego and ahead of his personal ambitions.

It tells us that the vast majority of the American people support Sanders’ refusal to heed the shrill cries of a vocal minority of his own supporters to run as an independent or endorse Jill Stein’s strategically pointless spoiler campaign and risk handing Trump the presidency in the process.

It tells us that mobilizing the American people to stand up and fight for the interests of the American people is the only winning political strategy for progressives and democratic especially socialists.

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