Bernie Sanders’ and Ted Cruz’s victories in Wisconsin: A world of magical Cheeses!

Keywords or Terms: Badger State; Land of Fifteen thousand lakes; Sun-Dapple fields of Wonder; European Newspapers: Die Welt; London Times; Le-Soir; Le Figaro; Tribune de Genève; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; New Hampshire; New York; Pennsylvania; Dodd-Franks; Bernie Sanders; Ted Cruz; immigration; Social Justices; Global Security; Xenophobia

Battling for votes in the badger state can be a complex-endeavor – but it doesn’t have to be, if you kick back and let your campaign message speak for itself in that deep wonderful hiking and horseback riding country. Unfortunately, Donald Trump like Hillary Clinton probably do not see it that way; neither does Ted Cruz, John Kasich or Bernie Sanders satisfied with that assertion and or assumption regarding the race for 2016 White House oval office. Republican like Democratic party aspirants have sworn to make things more complex for their rivals for party nomination.

For some eye-popping predictions, Ted Cruz on the Republican side was projected with a ten percent polls lead over Donald Trump, going into the Wisconsin contest; and, Bernie Sanders was said to be cranking up the heat in the land of fifteen thousand lakes, promising to outclass Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party front runner in that land of milk, cheese and butter. As a 2016 Republican presidential aspirant, if you believe you are popular enough in the symptomatic American dairy land and positioned rightly to woo more voters to your side, so you could sweep away forty-two delegates, then you’ve got it made in that picturesque farmland of sun-dappled fields of wonder.

Listening to Sunday’s pronouncement in Milwaukee from Donald Trump, Wisconsin is responding well to our message and it is appearing much like New Hampshire, where our campaign started from behind with the albatross on our neck, and suddenly we win in a landslide. Unfortunately, that prediction was not to be at the end of the vote count tonight: Donald Trump lost to Ted Cruz. For Democrats, the territorial sovereignty and buoyancy of Bernie Sanders were not only expanding, they continue to present credible dilemma for the Democratic Party front runner, Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders’ hope against his arch rival, Hillary Clinton, was not only doubly re-affirmed, his promising victory outclassed most projected expectations and put to shame, the former first lady’s grass roots campaign arrangement, positioning the Vermont Senator to acquire a huge chunk of the 96 delegates in that Sconnie nation.

Once considered absurd and possibly a myth, the possibility of Bernie Sanders hijacking the aura of invisibility of the former Secretary of State in many huge delegate rich states, with primary-styled and not caucuses-styled arrangement, was not far-fetched and the reality of Bernie Sanders campaign heralding a huge chunk of the available 96 delegates to his chest, once again re-affirmed the once untenable: “Bernie rocks anywhere!” Bernie Sanders’ unnerving staying power for the Hillary Clinton’s faithful, has not only sent the nomination process into a long and arduous slog, it has made the Democratic Party 2016 White House race an amazing contest, and somewhat of a nightmare for Hillary Clinton, the presumed polls' leader right from the onset. Wisconsin State’s early Spring surprise tonight, probably spurn the Clinton’s campaign team into another overdrive and reality check: “Bernie is not a pushover as you might have thought or assumed!”

Honesty and trustworthiness have been acclaimed to be the reasons why Bernie Sanders toppled the front runner, fifty-four percent to forty-six percent in voting margin. The disparity in the voting margin speaks well for Bernie Sanders and opens up the opportunity for a claim that he is going nowhere, no matter what the Clinton’s team wants and dreams. As the campaign contest head east, especially to New York and Pennsylvania, delegate rich states, Bernie Sanders may not be in the position to contest to that level that he would undo the long and standing delegate disparity in favor of the former US Secretary of State; however, he has proven himself a formidable foe for the other camp. Notwithstanding what the Wall Street or establishment candidate thinks, it is probably going to be harder for Secretary Clinton to claim a wider and better spread of Democrats' support of he campaign across the country; a likely loophole that a Republican Party flag bearer may sync into. Sure, Secretary Clinton will ultimately win the nomination on the Democratic Party side, however, Senator Sanders has had a remarkable run and no one must discountenance his outstanding performance in the last eight contests. With nearly eighty percent of the States contest determined by April 16^th, Hillary may find herself pivoting to some of the more liberal campaign messages from Sander’s campaign; and, hopefully, these would not disadvantage her campaign against the ultimate Republican nominee.

For the records, Hillary Clinton’s team may have to look at the 2016 campaign for the White House afresh, within the context of Senator Bernie Sanders' insurgencies and victories in about eighteen states. Going forward, the team may want to actively draw on, not only names of Bernie Sanders’ supporters, it may be wise to learn from Sanders campaign, how it has actively turned around states that were initially considered difficult terrain for his campaign into an oasis of victories; where he has turned initial polls’ deficits to outstanding victories, by unmasking initial presuppositions and dissuading his former high flying rival, by being proactive and consistent is his campaign messages that is now acclaimed to have provided more answers to the questions on Democratic Party's voters' mind than the former US Secretary of State's.

How Bernie Sanders has worked the campaign trail over and over again with the conviction of overturning past deficits and heralding supporters to give him victories and closing the delegates’ counts as best as he can, is a good case for presidential campaign messaging autopsy. Once the party nominee is chosen, the cross-pollination of ideas between the two Democratic front-runner candidates needs to begin rather in earnest to get the needed edge on the competition against Republicans. The Democratic Party is much better at being consensus builders and could even do better, if the position once considered as ultra-left from Bernie and hot button issues for mainstream campaigning are re-branded and re-worded to become more appealing to a wider population of American voters. From now on, no matter who ends up being the Democratic Party nominee, it will be essential to be reflective on past losses and pivot one’s campaign messaging, to appeal to much more mainstream audience, who will not consider the messaging as ultra-right or left; but, amendable to their personal private convictions and preferences on many national issues; and one that essentially appeals to an overwhelming American voter audience than can be found in either population of supporters of the Democratic or Republican party flag bearer, as we know them today. The challenge is there and is not so much insurmountable if a candidate pays attention to why he or she stumbled in some of the contests for party nomination.

When considered explicitly in the realm of American Presidential campaign for 2016 White House, eminent European security authority and agencies have argued for better cross national security apparatus to fight the insurgencies from ISIS and other terrorist groups in the face of recent terrorist attacks and insurgencies in that part of the world. The support for imperialistic ideology coming from the Republican front-runner at this time towards Muslim and minorities, strengthen the conventional wisdom or reasoning that Democrats are more welcoming than Republicans when it comes to immigration, equity in justice, race and jobs creation; however, the party may not necessarily claim the dominance in these areas. After the nomination, Donald Trump or whoever the Republican chooses to be their party’s flag bearer, is expected to pivot to the middle to capture some relevance on the national stage. Bernie sanders proposal on reforming Wall Street Excesses; Income distribution; Social Justices and Immigration reform, no matter how ultra-liberal he has presented them, must now have to be taken into consideration as Hillary Clinton goes into November. The party’s platform must reflect some of Bernie’s biases, if Hillary is to do well with his constituency that has often found her as untrustworthy and untruthful.

The Ultimate Democratic nominee needs to appreciate Bernie’s argument in the past ten to twelve months; if not completely adopting all of them on the party’s platform, realize that they are issues that are not going to go away for those who have supported his campaign in the last six states that he has convincingly triumphed. A part of the increasingly important debate is how to accommodate the twelve million undocumented immigrants among us; how to reform the financial institutions to ensure that banks and or insurance companies that are too big to fail, do not continue to take the taxpayers to the cleaners despite the Dodd-Frank’s reform that Bernie claims has not gone far enough to keep the public at peace, and how to better articulate equity in the administration of justice, so minorities do not continue to feel marginalize by the system; either in administration of justice or in policing the public.

The ‘we-they’ philosophy or position against minority Muslims from republicans, as positioned by the Republican front-runner may shred whatever multinational agreements that America has been with leading Muslim nations of the world in fighting ISIS and other international terrorist groups. The weakness of the argument that America is at war with Muslims as portrayed by Republicans is not going unnoticed by many Muslim states that have participated in coalition of nations to fight international terrorism. There is now a requirement on the Democratic Party side to allay fears in some of those nations, by examining the possibility of addressing cross-border terrorism acts in Europe that seems to put those nations on pins and needles, recently. The growing skepticism of the continuance of existing bilateral relationships and arrangements to fight global terrorism, in light of the probable Republican nominee campaign pronouncements, are issues that must be revisited for the country to move ahead in its commitment to reassure America’s homeland safety and conquer international terrorism.

Lucid and impartial argument in support of American minority groups are going to be part of the healing process for whoever ends up in the White house. Focusing on the interplay of fear of undocumented immigrants and the question of allegiance are not readily going to go away, neither will the wrangling between the far-right Republicans in the Tea party and establishment Republicans ever going to melt away easily. Democrats and their ultimate nominee are not going to assume early responsibility for all the bigotry coming from the mouth of the two front-runner Republican candidates; however, the damage which their words have caused in the psyche of foreigners and foreign nations, especially the sense of America’s vindictiveness against undocumented immigrants are obviously going to throw in some malevolent inertia which will send the tone of hostility from Washington DC at the United Nations.

The monumental rise of an outsider to the Republican Party leadership if Donald Trump ends up being the Republican nominee, a possibility that cannot be ruled out as of this time and as the contest moves eastwards and back to the delegate rich western state of California, may reconstruct the message that many Americans are not necessarily out of tune with the criticism that Donald Trump has leveled against undocumented immigrants, moderate Muslim states and other foreign nations, that once worked with us to resolve issues of international terrorism and global security. Donald Trump may not see the weaknesses in his pronouncements against minorities and foreign nations as detrimental to issue of national security and bilateral relations; however, if you read the growing criticism of the xenophobic campaign messages and the deration of what the front runner Republican has loosely or circumspectly identified as in the best interest of America, as explicitly derided in foreign press, including leading papers in Europe, Die Welt from Germany, Times of London, Le-Soir from Belgium, Le Figaro from France and Tribune de Genève from Switzerland, will inform you about how opinions are shifting or have shifted in Democratic Europe regarding American politics.

The formally favorable cutting edge editorial position in support of American policies and leaders are now dithering back once again, to where we were, at the end of the last Republican administration. Not only are these European Newspapers’ editorial pages wondering why someone as Donald Trump is leading the Republican nomination pack in Democratic American politics, they are questioning veracity and articulation of the average Republican, if not American voters, on what America, leader of the free world, stands for; especially, on the ascendancy of xenophobic and ultra-nationalistic pronouncements and biases of the leading Republican candidates, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. The marvelously rich political cartoons from these newspapers have now veered to a lampooning zest, drawn in part on the idiocy and mediocrity, characterizing the Xenophobic and Anti-Muslim romanticizing rhetoric from both Republican party front runners.

As Bernie Sanders extends his winning streak in Wisconsin, and gain momentum against Hillary Clinton, maybe the question that should be on his mind, if he is able to win over more Super delegates and converts to unseat the former US Secretary of State, is where do we go from here, with the damage already wrought on the nation’s psyche and ally's perception of what has become of the only standing super power's domestic politics? Maybe his solid victory in Wisconsin that have elicited the proverbial chanting of Bernie! Bernie!! And Bernie!!!, or the trailing in convention delegates, not the usual silver lining at the end of the rainbow or uncomfortable reality of the mathematics of becoming his party's ultimate flag bearer, but a reprieve from dealing with the reality of having to work overtime to improve the image of the country after the debacle of Republican Donald Trump’s or Ted Cruz’s campaign pronouncements. Maybe the daunting of the delegate’s math is hardly special or paramount at this time, nor the winning streak of seven in eight contests in a row, ever so enabling and promising; rather, it is how best to re-position the nation as haven of collaboration and multiculturalism, not of paranoia and prejudice against people who are not born Americans.

For ‘Die-hard’ Bernie Sanders supporters, his campaign has irrevocably changed the underlying reality of the Democratic Party’s campaign, if not that of the Republican Party’s 2016 White House contests as well. For this same group, Hillary Clinton’s campaign and ideals remain conflated with that of their hero's and messiah's; and unless more attention is placed on their messiah’s policy stance, no amount of derision that his proposal of breaking the big banks will result in adverse consequential impact on the American economy, will suffice. For them, the deity of Bernie Sanders on the campaign trail, is a remedy for whatever the Republican nominee may bring on in November; for every other American voter to visualize Bernie Sanders’ campaign the way they do, is ever so refreshing and infectious to the extent of providing convincing answers to pressing questions facing the nation, and culminating in Old Glory flying high from sea to shinning sea; and standing with grace and command all over American Embassies across the globe!