Op-Ed What Americans abroad know about Bernie Sanders and you should know too

[Uncle Joe]

(snip)

Although countless analyses have been devoted to the demographics each candidate needs to win, one demographic has not been part of the national conversation. Sanders won the first global Democratic Party primary by a landslide — 69% of the vote — that the media hardly noted and never analyzed. Democrats Abroad, the overseas arm of the Democratic Party, organized the election, which took place in March, to represent citizens who live outside the U.S., a group the Democratic National Committee considers the 51st state.

Expatriate Democrats could choose to send primary election absentee ballots back to their home states, or they could participate in the global primary, which will send 21 delegates to the party convention in July. Ballots could be cast by fax, email or snail mail in the global primary, or at one of 104 polling places that were organized in cities from Lima to London. (Since I was traveling at the time, I faxed my ballot, but my daughter sent me a festive photo showing her feeling the Bern in Berlin.)

Of the 8 million Americans who live abroad, 34,700 participated in the global Democratic primary. Although the sampling is not huge, it’s considerably larger than that used for polls that play crucial roles in the electoral process. While we are wondering what drives young Latinas or older white men to support this or that candidate, we ought to consider why 69% of Democratic voters who live in 40 countries preferred Bernie Sanders.

The answer is quite simple: The Sanders proposals that may strike Americans who have never lived in other countries as impractical and outlandish are simply common sense elsewhere — especially in Canada and Western Europe, where the majority of Democrats Abroad voters live. Universal healthcare? The U.S. is the only developed country that lacks it. Family leave? While it is nice that San Francisco just mandated six weeks of paid leave for new parents, Germany mandates 14 months — 16 if both parents share the time spent at home. Free college tuition? Britain recently tripled its college tuition fees, though it’s still the case that a year at Oxford will cost you a fraction of a year at a middling American college. In the rest of Europe, free tuition, and interest-free loans for living expenses, are the rule.

(snip)

But Germany is a model worth emulating: Its economy remains one of the strongest to emerge from the 2008 financial crisis. It has managed to preserve much of its manufacturing base in the process of becoming a dominant player in a globalized world. It is a major industrial exporter. Its success has gone hand in hand with laws and practices that American workers, blue collar or white, would be grateful for.

Real knowledge of daily working life abroad has shown expats that the revolution Sanders proposes for the United States could be just a matter of course. Voters at home should take heed.


http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-neiman-sanders-global-democratic-primary-20160603-snap-story.html

[malthaussen]

1. It's not a random sample, though.

Americans abroad tend to be better educated, better informed, and more willing to take risks, or they wouldn't be abroad. Whereas in various overseas territories, where the vote is largely indigenous, Mrs Clinton won by landslides, probably due simply to brand recognition.

-- Mal

[Uncle Joe]

2. Exit polls aren't randomly selected and analyzed by the media.

They consistently choose voters on the basis of race, gender, income, ideology etc. etc.

Why did better educated, better informed Democratic Voters overseas overwhelmingly vote for Bernie?

The corporate media conglomerates were deafeningly silent on this dynamic.

[malthaussen]

3. Well, it's a question that answers itself...

... and the media is silent because they aren't serving the better educated and better informed.

-- Mal

[Uncle Joe]

4. I don't believe they're serving the less educated and less informed either,

the corporate media conglomerates prefer an ignorant populace; much easier to manipulate and sell to.

[George II]

7. I think the point was that "Americans abroad" are not an accurate cross-section of the American...

....electorate. Nor do they represent all racial, ethnic, religious, sexual-orientation, or economic groups.

The smaller the group, the less representative they are.

[bbgrunt]

5. Expats are also exposed to a much more diverse media and better understand

how our choices affect other countries. Candidates who are hawkish and willing to extend our military for regime change elsewhere are seen as pariahs the world over. Regime change, after all, is just another excuse for war and profit.

[LittleGirl]

6. I was one of those that voted in it

I lived in a red state (AZ) so I thought I'd make a statement by voting this way for the primary and will be requesting my November voter abroad ballot soon.
Bernie won so much because Democratic Socialism isn't a dirty word here. It actually works! I was actually surprised about the results. I had no idea that he was going to win that by a landslide but early on, we had much better coverage of the primary than the states. We have many choices, Euronews, BBC, etc and CNN is the WORST. It was trump, trump trump everyday! ugh.

[Fast Walker 52]

8. American exceptionalism BS is killing this country

[yurbud]

9. As soon as you leave America, you realize some other countries do some things better than we do

[Uncle Joe]

10. That's one of the major adverse effects from the hubris of "American Exceptionalism" that kind

soul killing pride prevents too many Americans from believing the U.S. can learn anything from other nations in regards to looking out for, taking care and advancing the cause of its citizens.