Sanders isn’t going to be the nominee, but you can’t say he hasn’t made a difference. Here is his legacy, for good and for ill:
- He has driven Clinton away from free trade agreements. It is hard to see how the TPP can be approved at this point, given the success of the Trump and Sanders campaigns with protectionism. The Chinese will be delighted.
- He has put higher taxes and an expanded welfare state on the table. Sanders is the most left-wing candidate I can remember seeing in my lifetime. While some of his success simply derives from the fact that he is not a Clinton, one has to assume that part of it is a constituency to make America Danish. That means we will see more proposals to expand the welfare state in the future. One hopes that future candidates will have a more sophisticated idea of what is actually workable, but I give him credit for taking on a taboo and, to some extent, winning.
- You can run a financially successful campaign with very little support from large donors. Look for more of this in the future.