Clinton supporters' newest delusion about Bernie Sanders

Liberals who think Sanders supporters don't support his policies are fooling themselves

Bernie Sanders.
(Image credit: AP Photo/John Locher)

The Democratic primary is over, and Hillary Clinton won by a comfortable margin. Given the overwhelming handicap that Bernie Sanders faced, from big money donors to simple name recognition, it is staggering that the contest was even remotely close. But now that it's finished and the bitter and rather pointless fighting between Clinton and Sanders supporters is finally dying down, it's worth taking a step back to consider what this primary was all about — in particular, what Sanders' candidacy represents.

A number of liberals, perhaps unaccustomed to being on the conservative side of an argument, have been busily convincing themselves that the Sanders insurgency is little more than a coincidence, and does not represent any meaningful advance for the American left. Foremost among them are two political scientists, Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels, who used survey data and their theoretical work to argue that Sanders' ample support resulted from "social identities, symbolic commitments, and partisan loyalties," not actual left-wing ideology.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.