Why Sanders rises and Bannon falls

Besides their obvious differences in political philosophy and governing style, there are important reasons that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is a long-term phenomenon with continuing huge national popularity while Stephen Bannon was demoted from his perch on the principals committee of the National Security Council.

The great fault line in American politics is between the pure progressivism of Sanders, and the modern Republican combination of crony capitalist conservatism and alt-right fanaticism.

{mosads}What makes the Sanders phenomenon so powerful is his consistency of purpose and his honestly of presentation. Think about this: From the moment he began his presidential campaign and was virtually blacked out by the mainstream media until the current news today where Sanders has become a star, Sanders has maintained public approval at exceptionally high levels.

In presidential and approval polling, Sanders consistently runs 10 to 20 points ahead of President Trump. This was true throughout the 2016 campaign. It remains true today.

Few political leaders have sustained the level of popularity and trust that Sanders has.

By contrast, Trump began his presidency as the least-popular and least-trusted president in the history of presidential polling and has steadily moved downward.

Trump represents a faction that is a minority among the broader American electorate. Bannon represents a faction within a faction that peaked with the election of Trump and, like Trump’s poll numbers, has begun to move steadily downward since the 2016 election.

The alt-right movement is now on the defensive, accused of being overly sympathetic to far-fight European parties that now appear to be on the decline, and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, who is a form of alt-right dictator practicing crony capitalism by oligarchy.

The secret of success for Sanders is that his form of progressive populism, dramatic change and fundamental reform are majority views in America and throughout the democratic world.

While Sanders challenges the status quo and supports a Medicare-for-all healthcare system, virtually every other democratic country in the world enjoys the benefits of this system where healthcare is deemed a right. When the public option was being debated during the Obama years, it always maintained strong majority support in poll after poll.

By contrast, the politically self-destructive fiasco of the GOP move to “repeal and replace” ObamaCare is nothing more than a cover story for crony capitalist greed that will hurt consumers and is revealed to voters by every new variation of GOP healthcare legislation.

Similarly, when Sanders fights for free public college education and would pay for it by asking the wealthiest to do more, both students and parents benefit, which is why his proposal is so popular.

By contrast, when Trump named Betsy DeVos as secretary of Education, he chose a crony capitalist version of education policy that is unfriendly to the public education that a strong majority of voters cherish.

When Sanders suggests that Wall Street corruption should have been prosecuted and Wall Street reforms should be strengthened, he speaks for a vast majority of Americans.

By contrast, when Trump and Bannon pretend to be populists while the Trump presidency is composed of more Wall Street executives than even Wall Street leaders would dare to dream of, and when they propose destroying even modest regulation of Wall Street, their views are anathema to most Americans.

When Bannon champions a pseudo-populism to defend a crony capitalist Trump presidency, he ultimately does not stand a chance against the honest and legitimate progressive populism of Sanders and liberals.

When Bannon wants to deconstruct the modern state, voters know he really wants to destroy programs that help Americans.

When Republicans want to attack Medicaid and privatize Medicare, their views are alien to strong majorities of voters that Sanders speaks for.

And almost every day brings new revelations about new relationships between people close to Trump and agents of influence promoting the interests of Putin. Trump can desperately attack President Obama, 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, but that offers him no protection against the daily barrage of new revelations.

On these matters, Sen. Sanders is on the right side of politics and history; President Trump and Steve Bannon are on the wrong side. Six months to a year from now, Sanders will still be riding high while Bannon will probably be working at some place other than the White House.

Brent Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Chief Deputy Majority Whip Bill Alexander (D-Ark.). He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. He is a longtime regular columnist for The Hill and can be contacted at brentbbi@webtv.net.

The views of contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.