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Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis
Yeah, but we all know the rub here: 90+% of Congress will be returning after November. So all that "anti-establishment" will never actually materialize, and the establishment will still control the House and Senate, and thus essentially control the legislative process. Even if Bernie somehow wins, he will be so staunchly opposed on everything by the House and Senate, probably significantly more than Obama. It's at the House/Senate level that Bernie (and Trump) really need to get that kind of person into the process, but it's more likely than not that they will hurt the Dems/Repubs down-ticket if they are the nominee.
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Elections are not supposed to bring about revolutions. Most countries are best served by incremental change, and the presidential election of the US is like that.
If Sanders wins, that's clearly a big step in a certain direction. It would legitimize a huge number of liberal progressive agendas and bring them to the realm of "worth debating because it could happen".
If the Sanders' ideas prove so popular that you can become POTUS with them, opportunistic house and senate candidates would adopt many of them to help themselves get elected. Of course others would then take positions directly opposed to those ideas, but that still changes things. It would also mean the next president could have even more liberal ideas without being considered a radical.
Obama clearly paved the way for Sanders to be taken seriously. If Sanders wins, Elizabeth Warren for example would essentially be a moderate in the following election. (And there would probably be a candidate further left of her that might actually get some votes.)