“if Sanders’ nomination hadn’t been stolen by the DNC he would have surely trounced his reality TV star opponent in a fair election,”
Really? Based on what data exactly?
Reality check: while the Far Left Bernie mobilized would have come out in droves for him, the Independents who were pivotal in this election would have either stayed home in even greater numbers, or voted Trump.
Senator Sanders did ZIP — ZERO — NADDA to address the populist up swell of Poor and Middle Class White voters who turned out for Trump. His inability to take the stage stolen from him by Black Lives Matter at his Seattle rally would have come back to haunt him as well. I understand why he didn’t want a confrontation, but it made him look terribly weak, and his supposed supporters, unstable.
Worse for Sanders, the DNC, having failed to undermine him in the Primaries would have been left than helpful in the General Election ~ we both know THEY ARE THAT PETTY. So, that is less of the Democratic base voting for Sanders as well.
When we look at all the Republicans who hated Trump … a good number of them, while not enchanted with Hillary, knew she was an Establishment candidate. Sanders would have terrified them into action because, as you suggest, they don’t dare let Sanders in the White House to bring his issues center stage, or allow Pro-Sanders Congress-folk onto Capital Hill. A President Sanders stumping for Pro-Sanders candidates in 2018 could be very telling … so why take the chance?
Also … Sanders didn’t have much appeal to the ‘Pragmatist’ Independents — the ones voting more for Liberal Social Issues, but Conservative on economic policies. I simply don’t think there enough Leftist Independents to make up for all the support Hillary got which wouldn’t flow Sanders way.
AND, even if he did win ~ as you have pointed out ~ he would either have to sell out his “Socialist” platform thus neutering himself outside of Washington, or ‘fought the good fight’, stuck to his guns and been a President without a Party … something we really haven’t seen since John Tyler (1841–45). So very much not a good thing.
As a final note, while Trump dealing with the current racially charged atmosphere might not be seen as even adequate, under a Sanders’ Presidency it would be much, much worse. The ability for the Left to mobilize would be lessened {“hey, we won, right?”} while the forces on the ‘Alt-Right’ would be even more desperate and angry due to the rhetoric of the campaign and then LOSING.
At the moment, the Left is galvanized because they were the ones who lost so they are the ones feeling threatened and cheated. I still think we would see these ‘actions’, but with smaller numbers on the Left while the Right would be coming out in droves because, at this point, they have little left to lose … and oddly enough, the Right would be the ones representing the ‘Anti-Establishment’ as well … not having ‘their guy’ in the Oval Office.
Talk about the politics of ‘ugly’.