In December, Verso Books will release an updated version of Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders's 1997 memoir, Outsider in the House. Its new title is cheeky, if perhaps not entirely prophetic: Outsider in the White House.
Mr. Sanders, beacon of hope to his supporters and "humourless old pinko" to right-wing blogs, is certainly an outsider. He calls himself a democratic socialist, a term that is found in U.S. political strategy manuals next to "leper." He supports a national minimum wage, campaign finance reform, the dismantling of free-trade deals, breaking up large banks, and equal pay for women. He's as rare in Washington as a man paying for his own lunch.
The crazy and wonderful thing is, he's popular. The 73-year-old Vermont senator is gaining on Hillary Clinton in the Democratic nominee polls. He likely won't make it to the White House, but he's having a moment. His rallies are filled with zealous supporters. One of those fans recently told The Washington Post: "Bernie is different."
Different is the place to be in the U.S. presidential election. You want to be standing on the inside, claiming to be an outsider. This is perhaps inevitable when, according to a Pew Research survey, only 24 per cent of Americans profess trust in their federal government (down from 77 per cent in 1964). When the white-hot rage of millions of voters is directed at Washington, you want to claim to be from anywhere else – even the gilded penthouses of Manhattan.
If Mr. Sanders is the people's maverick on the left, then Donald "Rich people don't like me" Trump has taken that position on the right. Only in the bizarro world of U.S. presidential politics could a billionaire with a taste for private jets and xenophobic ranting market himself as an alienated man of the people.
The one thing that unites them is a canny understanding of the rage simmering under the electorate. Can you match the man to the statement? "There is more discontent and more anger at the establishment – that is, the corporate establishment, the political establishment, the media establishment" and "Washington is totally broken and it's not going to get fixed unless we put the right person in that top position." (The first is Mr. Sanders, the second is Mr. Trump.)
There are so many presidential contenders claiming to be on the outside it's a wonder some of them don't tumble off the edge. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker used the word "fresh" five times to describe his campaign during its launch, and he didn't mean a breeze off Green Bay. "The answers to the ailments of our nation do not come out of the nation's capital," he said. The headline on a CBS news story about Texas Senator Ted Cruz claimed that he's "an outsider, and proud" of it. Note that his job title is "U.S. senator," not "Anchorage plumber" or "Des Moines school trustee."
I shouldn't ignore the Democratic front-runner. Hillary Clinton, freshly rebranded as grandma-in-chief, claimed her spot among the people with a video launching her presidential run. "Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times. But the deck is still stacked in favour of those at the top," said the woman who earns upward of $325,000 (U.S.) a speech.
Staking an outside-the-Beltway position is a time-honoured (and successful) tradition. Ronald Reagan went to Washington shaking his head sadly at the political jargon and machinations that were so different from the gentlemanly business at the governor's mansion in Sacramento, Calif. "At my age, I didn't come to Washington to play politics as usual," he said. "I came to Washington to try to solve problems." Jimmy Carter, the least likely presidential candidate of the modern age, used his Georgia sincerity to win over the Watergate-blackened hearts of voters when he promised to "clean up the mess in Washington."
You know who else promised to "clean up the mess in Washington?" Jeb Bush. Yes, that Jeb Bush, when he announced his own plans to chase the Republican nomination in June. You have to wonder: Was that the mess left by his grandfather the senator, his father the president, or his brother the president?
"We don't need another president who merely holds the top spot among the pampered elites of Washington," Mr. Bush said, without laughing, during his campaign launch.
If Jeb Bush is on the outside, who does that leave on the inside? Whoever they are, they're keeping very quiet.