Courtesy of http://www.sanders.senate.gov/

There is only one politician running for the nomination of either of the two main political parties who has any character at all. Independent Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, despite the fact that he is running as a “democratic socialist” in a country where “socialist” is a dirty word, is running for the Democratic nomination and drawing huge crowds in all of his public appearances. In fact he is drawing significantly more people to his events than Hillary Clinton or even Donald Trump. He is firing up the Democratic base and getting people involved, but until the debate last night, very few Americans had even heard of him. How can this be?

The answer is that Bernie Sanders’ entire campaign is built around tearing down the Wall Street robber barons who destroyed the economy in 2008 and ruined millions of lives. He wants to tax the rich to make sure that the 1% pay their fair share, and he wants to provide working Americans with universal health care, free college tuition, and paid family leave. These ideas are hugely popular with the American public. As an independent senator, he was elected with an astounding 71% of the popular vote, but he knows it is much more difficult to run an independent presidential campaign, so he is seeking the Democratic nomination.

However, despite the fact that he is the only candidate for a major party’s nomination who is offering Americans what they want, he is a distant second to Hillary Clinton in polls for the Democratic nomination. The only explanation for this is that, as I’ve complained before, the mainstream media has been acting for a year now as if Clinton has already won the nomination. Despite Sanders’ popularity, the media has barely mentioned him, with all their air time and column inches going to editorials about Clinton’s chances to beat Jeb Bush or Donald Trump.

However, with the first Democratic debate happening this week, it was no longer possible for the media to totally ignore Bernie Sanders. Instead, they just turned to outright manipulation. After hearing Sanders decrying the corruption of Washington and Wall Street, huge proportions of debate viewers declared that Sanders was the winner. CNN, Time, and Slate all conducted reader polls, where more than 70% of their readers declared Sanders the winner. By contrast CNN’s headline was “CLINTON’S CONFIDENT SWEEP,” Time’s was “Clinton in Control,” while Slate declared “Hillary Clinton Won the CNN Debate With a Surprisingly Spectacular Performance.”

These media platforms are all owned by giant corporations with ties to Wall Street. A Bernie Sanders nomination would be disastrous for the personal incomes of the 1% who own all of America’s major media companies. Hillary Clinton has been a longtime friend of Wall Street. When they have the choice between promoting a socialist who will tear down Wall Street and a Wall Street crony who will keep lowering taxes on the rich, the mainstream media will promote the crony every time.

Bernie Sanders doesn’t have a chance of getting the Democratic nomination. No matter how much organic, grassroots support he generates, CNN, Time, and every other news organization will continue to refer to Clinton as the frontrunner, and most Americans want to vote for winners. If you didn’t believe before that Wall Street is controlling the American news media, then Bernie Sanders’ “failure” at the debates should prove it to you. He has laid out a plan that America desperately needs, and that Americans overwhelming approve of. But the media will never allow Democratic primary voters to nominate a socialist candidate. We need an independent candidate to form an independent government, and that’s why I’m hoping you will join me by casting your write-in vote for me, Art Drew, for President of the United States.