It’s looking more and more like a Trump vs Sanders race.

Bernie Sanders may have the best chance to win the Democratic nomination for president. He has “The Big Mo”(momentum), has raised more money than any other Democratic candidate, and has the best grass-roots support and national network.

Sanders has a revolutionary vision, rooted in his soul, about which he speaks passionately. After the initial start in Iowa and New Hampshire he has better-than-even odds to take on president Donald Trump.

Yet the Democrat establishment deems his socialist policies too far left, and fear he could end up winning the nomination only to lose the general election. The party elites have already changed the rules to allow Michael Bloomberg, a more moderate candidate, to participate in the televised debates in hopes of derailing Sanders.

Party elites are also discussing a rule change at the Democratic National Convention to allow the “super delegates”—unpledged Democrat professional and elected officials—to vote in the first round, if necessary to stop Sanders. In 2016, Sanders was denied the nomination because Hillary Clinton controlled the super delegates who swung the votes to her.

Sanders wants to do what Trump did in 2016

The 2016 Republican nomination process looked much the same. Political outsider and businessman Donald Trump roared onto the debate stage with 16 other candidates. He had no political experience, and scorned political orthodoxy. His uncivil, often vulgar manner, his background in entertainment, and his tweets challenged and ultimately prevailed over a stable of more refined, conventional politicians.

Trump had been a Democrat and a staunch supporter of Planned Parenthood. While voters wondered if he had a philosophical core, he certainly had a vision to “drain the swamp” of political and cultural bureaucrats. His slogan, Make America Great Again, captured the imagination of rural and blue collar Americans, disdained by elites of both parties (and famously labeled “a basket of deplorables” by Clinton).

Trump swept the field against the best efforts of the Republican establishment, secured the nomination, and, to the great surprise of most Americans, and perhaps to the man himself, won the White House.

A Bernie Sanders primary win would launch a clash of two radically different political visions, a battle between an avowed socialist and an unrepentant titan of industry. We would witness a struggle between an open-border internationalist and a “build the wall” nationalist.

In one corner of the ring, the most pro-life president; in the other, the Senator who clearly stated his pro-abortion position at a recent town hall meeting. When asked, “Is there such a thing as a pro-life Democrat in your vision of the party?” he responded brusquely, “I think being pro-choice is an absolutely essential part of being a Democrat.”

Trump vs Sanders but they have something in common

Pundits are billing a potential Trump vs Sanders race as a battle between left and right, between “communism” and “capitalism.” Certainly stark differences separate Sanders and Trump.

But they share something in common equally as important and groundbreaking as these policy differences: each stands against his party elites. That shared reality will make this an interesting race, two candidates competing against each together, and, at the same time, clashing with the insiders of their respective parties.

Sanders is running in a Democrat party trying desperately to block his nomination, just as did Trump in 2016. Trump took on the Republican establishment, got the nomination, and, to the consternation of all elites, gained the Oval Office.

Both candidates have tapped into a great surge of cynicism. Many if not most Americans no longer trust the establishment. If Sanders wins the nomination, we will have a fight of the grass roots, both Republican and Democrat, against the status quo of the political establishment.

Stand by! This could get interesting!

• Darrow Miller

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