Lefties, meet your candidate: Why Bernie is the only authentic alternative to Hillary Clinton

[DonViejo]

Lefties, meet your candidate: Why Bernie Sanders is the only authentic alternative to Hillary Clinton

Dissatisfied with Clinton's centrism? Well, Warren won't run and O'Malley's a poser. Embrace the blunt Brooklynite

JIM NEWELL

If the left flank of the Democratic Party is looking for an alternative to Hillary Clinton around whom to rally, there are no perfect figures.

When the Clintons led the centrist iteration of the Democratic Party in the 1990s, two of her potential Democratic challengers, Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee, were actual Republicans. So, no.

Another of the men was a good DLC soldier within the Clinton Democratic Party when that suited the advancement of his career, and now he’s acting like Pete Seeger out there because an opportunity has arisen. I cannot think of a better image of Martin O’Malley’s career than him walking through the protests in Baltimore to get his picture taken. He was the one who turned Baltimore over to the wolves of “no tolerance,” broken-windows policing during his tenure as mayor from 1999 to 2007, using his get-tough approach as a stepping stone toward the governor’s mansion.

The only authentic guy on the Democratic side of the ledger is the one declaring his candidacy today. Bernie Sanders is an old leftist crank — we mean that in the best possible way — from Brooklyn. You can tell that he is from Brooklyn if you listen to any word that he says. We will be hearing a lot more about the MILLIONAYUHS AND BILLIONAYUHS over the next year or so, and we’ll be hearing it from someone who didn’t just arrive at his opinions yesterday after commissioning a few focus groups.

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http://www.salon.com/2015/04/30/lefties_meet_your_candidate_why_bernie_sanders_is_the_only_authentic_alternative_to_hillary_clinton/

[marym625]

1. Though I say, Americans, meet your candidate

[DonCoquixote]

2. Let's say we know with 100 percent certainty

That Hillary will be the Nominee. Hell, let's say she is guaranteed a two-term landslide victory that puts a VP of hers in office for another two-term landslide victory.

It is still a good thing to see Bernie run, why? Because he will make sure Hillary has to lean to the left, despite the fact that the Al Froms, Lloyd Blankfelds, Evan Bayhs, Lynn de Rothchilds and Alice Waltons are damned well placing pressure on her to lean right. If she leans right, she will lean right into the same strategy of saying "I'm really a moderate republican" that the GOP knows how to use so well, as the still smoking wrecks of the 2010 and 2014 elections show. Bernie is also good in that he can land a few good left jabs, which means that Hill has a chance to show she can bring out her own left hooks, and in the process, dispel the GOP's plans to say she was coronated. This will also help vaccinate her campaign against folks like Ralph "Vote for Rand Paul" Nader, who would only thrive in conditions where the left is told to SHUT UP right from the get go.

It's a win win, either we get a Hillary pulled to the left, which is to say her base, which is to say the people who, unlike the Regaan Democrats, actually WILL vote for her, or we get someone who beat Hillary fair and square, and who could pick a young VP to soothe the "he's too old" fears, even though we all know Strom Thurmond was sinking fangs into the nation well into his 80's.