Legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh weighs in on the foreign policy positions of the 2016 presidential candidates. "For me to say who I’m going to vote for and all that … I’m not a political leader, that’s not what I’m into," Hersh says. "But I will say this: Something that’s amazing is happening in this country, and for the first time, I do think it’s going to be very hard for a lot of the people who support Sanders to support Hillary Clinton. … There’s a whole group of young people in America, across the board, all races, etc., etc., who have just had it with our system."

(In These Times) "TODAY,” BERNIE SANDERS BOOMS IN HIS MONOTONE SHOUT, “we begin a political revolution to transform our country—economically, politically, socially and environmentally.” He marks each beat with his right hand, as if conducting with an invisible baton. Behind him, a lone seagull flaps its wings as it flies across Lake Champlain. The crowd of 5,000 that has come to Burlington, Vt., on a sunny afternoon in May to witness Sanders’ official campaign announcement breaks into a cheer.

At the time, it was easy to dismiss talk of revolution as the rallying cry of a 74-year-old democratic socialist who clings too dearly to memories of the 1960s. Eleven months and more than six million votes later, Sanders’ call for revolution is harder to ignore.

But what, exactly, would this political revolution look like? It’s not hard to imagine Sanders marching in the streets with the masses—he’s walked plenty of picket lines, most recently alongside Verizon workers in New York City last October—but that’s not the revolution he’s calling for. For Sanders, political revolution means shifting control of American politics away from corporate interests, convincing non-voters to go to the polls and attracting white working-class voters back to the Democratic Party, all while moving the party left enough to embrace democratic socialist policies.

A political revolution of that kind is going to require two things: a wave of candidates committed to a bold set of progressive ideas and a mass of voters with the political will to elect them. There’s evidence both of these are already here.

IN THESE TIMES SPOKE TO U.S. HOUSE AND SENATE CHALLENGERS across the country who are very much a part of this wave. They are all outsiders to varying degrees, and all of them are running against the Democratic establishment in its various forms—from corporate donors and super PACs to the head of the Democratic National Committee herself.

These challengers range from first-time candidates to experienced lawmakers, from community organizers to law professors. Each is balancing the individual concerns of the voters they seek to represent alongside the larger mood of the nation. None of them is running because of Bernie Sanders, but they clearly benefit from the enthusiasm and sense of progressive possibility his campaign has created.

Super Tuesday No. 4" pits anti-establishment energy against Democratic Party insider status.

And no, we're not (just) talking about the dynamic between presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.

U.S. Senate primaries in Maryland and Pennsylvania on Tuesday also feature outsider challengers who are giving Democratic establishment candidates a run for their money.

"Joe Sestak and Rep. Donna Edwards don’t appear to have much in common," Politico wrote on Tuesday. "One's a white, former Navy admiral from the Pennsylvania suburbs, the other an African-American single mother from Prince George's County, Maryland."

"But this week they are united by powerful Democratic leaders' attempts both back home and in Washington to keep them out of the Senate," Politico continued.

(In These Times) Today, after his 16-point loss in New York, it is extremely difficult for Bernie Sanders to secure the Democratic nomination for President. Then again, it was extremely difficult before yesterday and has been every day since he announced his intention to run nearly a year ago.

Sanders’ campaign has always been a long shot: he started out with virtually no national profile, insubstantial support among Democratic officeholders and power-players, and a hostile news media intent on ignoring him as long as possible and ridiculing him thereafter. (emphasis mine) In the face of such long odds, the campaign has accomplished remarkable things: breaking fundraising records, producing some of the greatest campaign ads ever and coalescing political will around frames and ideas that will be essential for the ascendant left in coming years.

His path to the convention is clear. Sanders should continue fighting to mobilize every last voter and delegate behind his agenda of guaranteed universal rights to healthcare, education, and dignified conditions—and continue impressing the necessity for ongoing mass agitation (what he calls the “political revolution”) to accomplish the same. That way, when he gets to Philadelphia in July, even if he hasn't managed to catch up to Clinton, he will possess maximal leverage to affect the convention.

A Revolution or New Normal?

Sanders supporters and political observers will surely cite more examples, but what stands out to progressives about many aspects of Sanders’ campaign and agenda is that what he is calling for isn’t revolutionary at all—it’s sane, and if anything, overdue. The passion and public purpose of his campaign has struck deep and wide notes precisely because of that.

Will Bernie Sanders’s supporters rally behind Hillary Clinton if she gets the nomination? Likewise, if Donald Trump is denied the Republican nomination, will his supporters back whoever gets the Republican nod?

If 2008 is any guide, the answer is unambiguously yes to both. About 90 percent of people who backed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries that year ended up supporting Barack Obama in the general election. About the same percent of Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney backers came around to supporting John McCain.

But 2008 may not be a good guide to the 2016 election, whose most conspicuous feature is furious antipathy to the political establishment.

(Common Dreams) Bernie Sanders is changing the face of American politics, a new poll from Harvard's Institute of Politics suggests.

According to the survey released Monday, Sanders remains the most popular presidential candidate for so-called millennials between the ages of 18-29, 54 percent of whom view him favorably, compared to 31 percent who harbor unfavorable views.

Just 37 percent of respondents say they see Sanders rival Hillary Clinton favorably, compared to 53 percent who do not.

More importantly, regardless of how Sanders fares in Tuesday's primaries, or in the race for the nomination overall, there's little doubt that the senator from Vermont is making a lasting impact, polling director John Della Volpe told the Washington Post on Monday.

"He's not moving a party to the left. He's moving a generation to the left," Della Volpe said of Sanders. "Whether or not he's winning or losing, it's really that he's impacting the way in which a generation—the largest generation in the history of America—thinks about politics."

(Common Dreams) Though the media and political establishment have all but declared Hillary Clinton the official Democratic presidential candidate, new polling on Monday shows that Bernie Sanders continues to fare significantly better when matched against Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.

According to the latest George Washington (GW) University Battleground Poll, Clinton's lead over Trump has shrunk to 3 percentage points, with her besting the billionaire developer by just 46 to 43 percent nationally. What's more, the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

The RealClearPolitics average has the former secretary of state with a slightly higher lead (8.5 percent) over Trump.

Meanwhile, Sanders continues to trounce Trump by double digits: 51 to 40 percent in the GW poll, and 53 to 37.8 percent, according to RealClearPolitics.

(The Nation) A year ago this week, when Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) announced that he was running for president, his campaign was widely dismissed as nothing more than a protest candidacy.

Over the past 12 months, Sanders has defied the expectations of many in the political and media establishment. He has proven that there is a vast constituency of voters who are hungry for the progressive ideas at the heart of his campaign. And he has pushed Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton to take bolder positions. But now, as the delegate math for Sanders grows more daunting, some Clinton supporters and pundits are calling on him to drop out of the race. Sanders should ignore them. (emphasis mine)

Clinton is almost certain to be the Democratic nominee, but those demanding that Sanders drop out are once again underestimating what he can accomplish by staying in the race. By continuing through the final primaries in June, and entering the July convention with more delegates and primary victories than any true dark-horse candidate in modern history, Sanders still has an opportunity to both influence the direction of the party and increase its chances of victory in the general election.