Stacking the Deck

Bernie Sanders could well win Wisconsin's primary today, which would make it difficult for Hillary Clinton to put him away once and for all.  Not only does Sanders have a slightly better-than-even chance, he's also rising in the polls in his native state of New York, which holds its primary on April 19.

The odds are still against him, though, since the rules for winning the Democratic presidential nomination favor the establishment.  The Democratic National Committee has diverted its meager resources to factions supporting Hillary, and the way some of these primaries have been run with regards to voter registration have been obscene - and if you think primary electoral manipulation in places like Arizona and Massachusetts have been bad, wait until you see Republican-sponsored voter suppression plays out in der Wiskonseinsches Reich.

The media, of course, are part of this, explaining why Sanders can't win the nomination - the delegate math, the superdelegates, yada yada yada - and they keep calling Hillary the "inevitable nominee."  Of course she's inevitable, what with so many Democratic voters staying home on primary and caucus days, with candidates not named Bernie Sanders swatted away like mosquitoes, and a corrupt party establishment using any means, unfair or really unfair, to enforce ratification of its choice.   Sanders keeps fighting back, and his accusation of Hillary taking too much money from fossil-fuel interests is evidence of his persistence - and there are several other interest groups and corporations that have helped her which he could cite (*cough cough,* Monsanto, *cough cough*) - but he still has his work cut out for him.  Meanwhile, even though the Republicans are having a spirited internecine conflict over their presidential nomination, disillusionment and disgust among Democrats over their nomination process have made the rank and file of the Democratic Party, a party that has had its collective rear end kicked repeatedly in election after election, bewildered and depressed over their prospects with Hillary come November. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus knows that.