I hope my friend Jon Talton has a stout spine, as I want to piggyback on an excellent blog he has written about U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

He poses questions for the man who’s battling Hillary Rodham Clinton for the party nomination. Talton covers a lot of ground, noting that Sanders has lied about Clinton’s alleged statements, oversold his Senate record, has failed to develop any foreign-policy platform.

I want to add another critical point regarding the Sanders candidacy.

Talton compares Sanders to the “gadfly” who gripes at city council meetings. I believe he’s worse than that. His one-note chorus about “income inequality” is bordering on demagoguery.

The dictionary defines a demagogue as one who “obtains power by appealing to the emotions and prejudices of the populace.” That term clearly applies to the leading Republican candidate, Donald J. Trump and to Texas U.S. Sen. Rafael Edward Cruz.

For months on end, Sanders has taken his “message” of income inequality around the country. He lays all the blame for whatever ails the nation on the “top 1 percent” who are acquiring virtually all the nation’s wealth at the expense of the other 99 percent.

The way I see it, Sanders is appealing to people’s “emotions” and “prejudices.”

What’s more, he isn’t offering substantive proposals for how to attack what he says are the nation’s most critical problems. He recently was pressed about how he would close the “big banks.” Sen. Sanders’ mumbled and bumbled his way through a virtually incomprehensible response.

I’m still waiting to hear how he intends to provide free college education for every student in the nation — without bankrupting the federal Treasury. Is there any surprise, then, that Sanders is wiping Clinton out among college-age voters?

One of the more fascinating arguments Talton makes in his blog deals with the reason why Republicans haven’t yet taken aim at him in the primary. It’s because the GOP wants to run against him in the fall. They are expending all their ammo during this primary season trying to take down Clinton.

Suppose lightning strikes and Sanders does win the Democratic nomination … is ol’ Bern ready for the onslaught that is sure to come?

Gosh, and to think I once lamented why only the Republicans were having all the fun during this nominating season. The Democrats have joined them.

I don’t know where to turn.