2020 is not 1972
Recently, I’ve seen several comments on Daily Kos in which people expressed the fear that if Bernie Sanders were to become the 2020 Democratic nominee for president, the results of the 2020 election would be similar to the results of the 1972 when George McGovern was the Democratic standard bearer.
To me comments in that vein indicate at least two fundamental misunderstandings. The first is with respect to the current structure and distribution of the American electorate, and the second is with respect to the political history surrounding the events which eventually led up to the solidifying of the current Democratic coalition in 1968.
I’ll begin with the first misunderstanding, since it is rather simple to address, and then I’ll address the second in some detail as it is more complex and requires some background to discuss and treat in a meaningful way.