Bernie Sanders rivals Clinton in fundraising

> He's got more support and more money than most of the jokers on the Republican side who are getting respectful treatment from their party and the press.

This doesn't mean much in itself. He's one of three candidates, compared to ~15 Republican candidates. It's almost mathematically certain that two of the three Democratic candidates will have more support that 'most of' the Republicans, regardless of their ideology.

It would be meaningful if he didn't have that level of support, given that there are only two other choices (and that practically nobody has even heard of one of the other two).

The Democratic Party has (recently) come to value unity and party discipline (A.K.A. loyalty). The Republicans have lost unity and discipline over the past 10+ years. You can see this from how Democratic Party leaders critize their counterparts for failing to keep members 'in line', whereas the opposite (Rs criticizing Ds for lack of discipline) is rarely the case.

This treatment of non-establishment (or non-conformist) politicians (Sanders being one case) is just a symptom of this medium-term trend.

Sanders is leading in NH, but is in a distant second in IA and nationally [1]. Unfortunately most of these polls include a hypothetical Biden run. Its not clear how much of his support would go to Clinton, but I assume at least half, given they are both establishment candidates.

[1] http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/electio...