Yes, I agree. If Bernie can demonstrate that a grass-roots, small-donor-funded campaign actually CAN work, that may well open the door to more non-establishment and non-insane candidates. And if he can win the Presidency and get campaign finance reform in place, that's even more of a game-changer. :)
The race so far is certainly laying bare some interesting things about the parties, though. Trump is illustrating exactly how virulently racist and xenophobic and frankly moronic is the GOP's main voting base (something most of us knew, of course), while Bernie is showing that the establishment Democratic party isn't all that progressive at all. I love how he refuses to take the bait to attack Hillary, but he does draw lines on where they differ in policy, and those differences are often pretty impressive. If he does nothing but shift the Democratic primary to the left and give Democratic Socialism a better name, that would be something--but he's in it to win, and I'm right there with him. :) And on the GOP side, if they nominate Trump or anyone who holds similar views (and let's face it, they all do), I think their defeat will be massive, and they might have to actually act on what they said after losing in 2012--moderate their positions, expand the tent, stop doing everything they can to attack women and minorities. Otherwise they are toast in terms of winning national elections.
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The race so far is certainly laying bare some interesting things about the parties, though. Trump is illustrating exactly how virulently racist and xenophobic and frankly moronic is the GOP's main voting base (something most of us knew, of course), while Bernie is showing that the establishment Democratic party isn't all that progressive at all. I love how he refuses to take the bait to attack Hillary, but he does draw lines on where they differ in policy, and those differences are often pretty impressive. If he does nothing but shift the Democratic primary to the left and give Democratic Socialism a better name, that would be something--but he's in it to win, and I'm right there with him. :) And on the GOP side, if they nominate Trump or anyone who holds similar views (and let's face it, they all do), I think their defeat will be massive, and they might have to actually act on what they said after losing in 2012--moderate their positions, expand the tent, stop doing everything they can to attack women and minorities. Otherwise they are toast in terms of winning national elections.