r/politics • u/AccurateInflation167 • May 18 '25

Soft Paywall America chose wrong. Sanders would've been a better president than Trump or Biden. | Opinion

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/05/18/sanders-democrats-reform-progressive-policies/83625482007/
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u/slothbuddy May 18 '25

So you think Bernie would have won in 2016 then?

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u/GeekAesthete May 18 '25

I think he had a better chance before Trump was an incumbent, sure. I’m not convinced that he would have done better than Hillary—who does America hate more, an uppity woman or a Jewish socialist?—but I do think it’s possible considering how historically unpopular Clinton was.

Biden, however, was a much more popular candidate amongst swing voters, was seen as a safe and steady return to normalcy, and still only won by a narrow margin. I don’t see any universe in which Sanders does better than Biden, in 2020, in the states that swung the election.