2020 Democratic Primary is Mirroring 2016 Republican Primary

Today, with less than a week to go until the Iowa caucus, it is interesting to assess the attack on Bernie Sanders being formulated by corporate thought managers. A good example, which appeared yesterday in the national edition of The New York Times, is "Bernie Sanders and His Internet Army." Written by Matt Flegenheimer, Rebecca Ruiz and Nellie Bowles, the idea being peddled is that Bernie Sanders telepathically controls millions of vicious, violent, sleepless trolls and bots that patrol the online universe snuffing out any perspective critical of the Vermont senator and two-time presidential aspirant. In other words, Bernie Sanders is guilty of having loyal supporters.

Writing for Jacobin, Julie Holar makes the insightful observation that "Mainstream Media Are Obsessed With Comparing Bernie to Trump," which was basically the underlying premise of the lengthy Flegenheimer et al. piece: SandersForPresident Reddit group is the left version of Trump supporters on 8chan.

There is one aspect, a very important one, in which the Trump-Sanders conflation makes sense. In 2016 Trump weathered every conceivable attack from the mainstream corporate media and rolled to an easy win in the GOP primary. It is as if the Republican electorate was fervently taking its cues from corporate media; except, rather than strictly adhering to the admonitions of the prestige press and its corp of pundits, it consistently did the exact opposite of what it was told.

We'll see how things break, but it looks like the 2020 Democratic Primary is mirroring the 2016 Republican Primary. Then as now mainstream thought managers didn't have a singular champion to combat the anti-establishment foe. Scott Walker? Marco Rubio? Jeb Bush? Kamala Harris? Cory Booker? Joe Biden?

The New York Times presidential endorsement is case in point. The "newspaper of record" couldn't even make a clear choice, splitting its support between an also-ran Amy Klobuchar and a viable contender Elizabeth Warren.

When the rubble of the 2020 Democratic Primary clears Fourth Estate elites are going to realize an opportunity lost. Warren was their best hope. But the only time the corporate media backed her candidacy was to diminish Sanders'; the rest of the time it spent attacking her policy proposals.

Now that it appears that Democrats are replaying the 2016 Republican Primary, the questions becomes, "Is there anything that elites can do differently this time to block the anti-establishment candidate?"

The first answer the pops into my head? Mike Bloomberg.