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Supporters of former Democratic nomination contender Bernie Sanders are outraged at party corruption, which begs the question of whether they will support Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
In recent days, e-mails have been leaked to show that the Democratic National Convention (DNC) tried to squeeze out Sanders and rig the race in favor of Clinton. The scandal has forced chair of the DNC Debbie Wasserman Schultz to announce her resignation effective once the convention ends.
Senator Bernie Sanders delivers a speech on the first day of the 2016 U.S. Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the United States, on July 25, 2016. Photo: Xinhua
As the DNC kicked off Monday, a number of Sanders supporters held angry protests over allegations that the primary race against Clinton was rigged against Sanders.
Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua that with Schultz stepping down, Sanders' supporters will lose the target of much of their frustration.
There has been much speculation in the U.S. media over whether Sanders' supporters will back Republican nominee Donald Trump against Clinton, but Mahaffee doubts that will be the case because Sanders and Trump have vastly different political visions.
However, there may be a few single voters who, trying to disrupt the political establishment, will switch from Sanders to Trump, he added.
"Most of the others who are drawn to Sanders because of his progressive politics will focus on circling the wagons around Clinton for defeating Trump," Mahaffee said.
If there are people who cannot support Clinton, their progressive viewpoints may have them sitting on their hands and not voting at all or voting for the Green Party candidate Jill Stein, he said.
Senator Bernie Sanders delivers a speech on the first day of the 2016 U.S. Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the United States, on July 25, 2016. Photo: Xinhua
Sanders' supporters are mainly those who are tired of establishment politics and feel that Clinton and other establishment Democrats are too close to corporate America and Wall Street interests.
They want to make sure that even if Sanders isn't the nominee, Clinton's platform moves further to the left on issues of banking regulation, trade, non-interventionist foreign policy, and reforms to criminal justice and drug laws.
"Ironically, in many ways, they want her to repudiate much of the center-left platform that (former U.S. President) Bill Clinton championed in the 1990s," Mahaffee said.
Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, told Xinhua that it is hard to see Sanders' supporters voting for Trump, given his controversial attitudes toward women and minorities as Trump has compared Mexicans to rapists and called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
Instead, the greater risk to Clinton is those voters who will not vote or will cast a ballot for Stein, if that happens in large numbers.
Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, told Xinhua that while Sanders' supporters are protesting, they are more likely simply to stay home on Election Day instead of casting their ballots for Trump.
(APD)
