Is a vote for Bernie Sanders a casual gesture or a deep, aching hope? You decide

Bernie Sanders

Even before the results of the New Hampshire primary came in, ABC News’s first results were reporting significant findings from the exit polls.

They showed that the electorate was increasingly polarized, that voters were more frustrated and fearful.

Most significant of all, that a chunk of Democrat voters and an even larger section of Republicans, wanted a candidate from “outside the political establishment.”

It spoke to a yearning, a deep aching need for authenticity. On the Democrat front, for a socialist, unfashionably old, unspun lone-ranger, an insurgent unlikely to topple Hillary Clinton.

Mr Sanders represents a profound reaction to the focus-grouped 90s, which seem so formulaic now, with their synthetic prescriptions and overly fixed routines.

The tragedy of New Hampshire is that it will probably be a wasted vote.