Anand Giridharadas On Sanders' Victory In Nevada: 'A Wake Up Moment For The American Establishment'

In an appearance on MSNBC Sunday morning just hours after Sen. Bernie Sanders' decisive victory in the Nevada Democratic presidential caucus, author and political commentator Anand Giridharadas said the senator's win could represent the dawn of "a new era in American life" and called out establishment forces—including MSNBC—for reacting like "out-of-touch aristocrats in a dying aristocracy."

Last night was a historic win that I think a lot of us are still struggling to understand," said Giridharadas. "Something is happening in America right now that actually does not fit our mental models. It certainly doesn't fit the mental models of a lot of people on TV."

MSNBC's Nicole Wallace admitted as much Saturday evening, lamenting that she has "no idea what voters think about anything anymore" following Sanders' overwhelming caucus victory, powered by the mobilization of a diverse coalition of voters across Nevada. UCLA's Latino Policy and Politics Initiative estimated Sunday morning, with around 60% of precincts officially reporting, that Sanders won over 70% of the Latino vote in the Nevada caucus.

"You have someone talking about, in a way we have not heard, genuine deeper democracy, popular movements, human equality in a meaningful way, and a politics of love in the tradition of Dr. King—and winning elections," Giridharadas said of Sanders. "I think this is a wake-up moment for the American power establishment, from Michael Bloomberg to those of us in the media to the Democratic Party to donors to CEOs."

Giridharadas emphasized that Sanders' win is also a wake-up call for MSNBC, whose anchors and contributors spent much of Saturday evening melting down on live television over the prospect of the Vermont senator winning the Democratic presidential nomination.

"I think about this network, which I love... and I think we have to look within, also," said Giridharadas. "Why is a lobbyist for Uber and Mark Zuckerberg on the air many nights explaining a political revolution to us? Why is Chris Matthews on this air talking about the victory of Bernie Sanders, who had kin murdered in the Holocaust, and analogizing it to the Nazi conquest of France?"

This is a wake-up moment for the American power establishment.

Many in this elite are behaving like aristocrats in a dying regime — including in media.

It’s time for many to step up, rethink, and understand the dawn of what may be a new era in America.pic.twitter.com/tr2jpTD7YY— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 23, 2020

On the subject of Bloomberg—viewed by many establishment figures as the only Democratic candidate with the ability to stop Sanders—Giridharadas said the "attempt to purchase the presidency of the United States may be legal, but it is corruption on a scale that makes a Ukraine deal look actually quite trivial."

"We are living in a plutocracy," Giridharadas added. "You either recognize that or you don't. And if you do recognize that, you think we need to make the plutocrats less powerful—all of them less powerful. If you want justice to flourish in America, you're gonna to have to make those people less powerful. And I do not believe they are going to be the leaders of the change that displaces them."

“Are we going to get past the myth (that I’ve heard in some of this discussion) of the good billionaire versus the bad billionaire?”

Watch @AnandWrites’s drop-the-mic moment on AM Joy. pic.twitter.com/nGxtHJnDgZ— LaVel (@Quirkywriter01) February 23, 2020