Sanders, a self-declared Socialist, has referred to his campaign as a revolution, but the truth is, a Sanders presidency would be perhaps the only way the United States could circumvent a popular uprising against a predatory economic system that has subordinated government, dispossessed and impoverished its citizens, and bankrupted entire states and cities.
The media claims that Trump has become the candidate of working class White Americans who are angry and frustrated over their ever-declining quality of life and prospects for the future. But this reflects the media’s disdain for the working class more than anything else. In their view, the working poor are an ignorant mob, easily whipped into a frenzy by Trump’s hateful, polemic rhetoric. The reality is, however, that far more poor Whites have voted for Sanders than for Trump, because, yes, they do actually understand their condition and what is causing it, and they know what sorts of policies could potentially remedy their misery.
There is no doubt that a Clinton presidency will mean a continuation of the policies that perpetuate economic crises; and there is no doubt that a Trump presidency will mean an intensification of those policies.
The fact that Sanders earned such widespread grassroots support indeed signals a deep longing for drastic change in America; the way this longing will express itself over the next four years under a Clinton, or especially under a Trump presidency, will likely become radical and potentially explosive.