Yes, California, we matter on June 7, just not the way the major media predicted.

The experts who insisted Donald Trump would be a flash in the pan are the same ones who ignored Sen. Bernie Sanders from the start.

What the elite in both parties have missed is a broad yearning for change across the political spectrum, and voters of all stripes who are fed up with what Sanders aptly calls “establishment economics and establishment politics.”

Regular Americans know we have a broken campaign finance system rigged to benefit big corporations and billionaires who dominate Washington and unduly influence public policy.

They know the job of health care reform is not over, with far too many unable to use the private insurance they pay premiums for because of the high out-of-pocket costs that only an improved Medicare-for-all system will fix.

They know too many people stuck in low-paying jobs or who have kids unable to afford to go to college or retired seniors mired in poverty, or are tired of waiting for humane immigration and criminal justice reform. And they do not want to settle for the status quo, business and politics as usual. 

It’s why Sanders consistently racks up big margins with independents in primaries that, like California, are open to them. Sanders won 72 percent of the independent voters in Indiana, and 71 percent in Michigan and Wisconsin. In California, more than 4 million people are registered as No Party Preference, one fifth of all registered voters, who can vote in the Democratic primary by requesting a Democratic ballot, and will likely also affect the outcome.

It’s why Sanders has racked up huge margins with young voters whose vision of the future is not to lower their expectations and dreams. Sanders won by 81 percent in voters under 30 in Michigan and Wisconsin, and by similarly wide margins even in states Clinton won.

It’s why Sanders wins the votes of working-class voters who are fed up with what Sanders aptly calls the “grotesque” income inequality that has seen largely stagnant wages while income and wealth are concentrated at the top. And he’s winning the votes of workers who are fed up with watching good-paying jobs shipped to cheaper labor markets in corporate-designed trade pacts.

Hillary Clinton has won among traditional Democratic voters in closed primaries. But in a general election, registered Democrats account for less than 30 percent of all voters. The largest bloc will be independents, the ones voting for Sanders, and Trump — not Clinton.

The pundits who have been quick to dismiss Sanders’ appeal also discount the glaring problem that Sanders beats Trump by wider margins than Clinton in virtually every national and state poll.

The inconvenient truth for the Clinton machine remains that it is Sanders, not Clinton, who speaks to the issues that animate independent and young voters alike. And it is Sanders, not Clinton, who is far more likely to draw disgruntled voters away from Trump, as well as to inspire young people to turn out to vote in November.

All that and more is why nurses have campaigned across the U.S., and why California nurses are carrying that message now at home. They see a vote for Sanders as a vote for their patients, their families, and our future as a nation.

RoseAnn DeMoro is executive director of National Nurses United

Original Post: http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Democrats-California-s-primary-still-matters