Is it just impossible to support a sane foreign policy if you are an elected Republican or Democrat?

[betterdemsonly]

Is the establishment just hopelessly committed to imperialism, Democratic Party included? I mean Hillary pisses everyone off, but lets just face the fact that Warren and Sanders have let us down too. Frankly, I suspect the only reason Obama supporters are mad at Clinton, is because she publicly criticized Obama, not because Obama is significantly to the left of Hillary on this issue. She is pretending that he offered the Syrian opposition no support or that he hasn't been publicly claiming that he is vetting them for Isis. Obama ultimately did support the Syrian opposition, theoretically vetting them for Isis. Where has it gotten us? Isis continues to grow. Whether, or not this vetting is working, is clearly in doubt. More vetting probably won't help either.

Salon did a really interesting interview with Kshema Sawant, the great Socialist alt candidate in Seattle.

If you run in the Democratic Party, you are beholden to their party line, and that’s why at Socialist Alternative, my organization, we think the first step to create a genuine left-force in the U.S. is for activists and political people to understand that you can’t do it from within the Democratic Party. If you’re going to take principled positions in favor of humanitarian questions, in favor of social justice, in favor of needs of ordinary people, then the first step is to break from the two-party system.

Have you been disappointed to see Sen. Elizabeth Warren avoid this issue so assiduously? She’s been so outspoken and unfiltered on a lot of economic issues, but hasn’t said much about the Gaza campaign beyond the usual clichés.

I think that’s a very good question you’re asking: What should our position be on Elizabeth Warren?

I can say that, just speaking for myself personally as an economist, I really give her due credit for having been quite, in many ways, fearless and quite a dogged advocate for the “little” people. After the recession broke out — and there was a furious economic devastation that has been rained on ordinary people in the form of massive joblessness, foreclosure crisis and so on — she was one of the voices that was advocating in favor of credit card fraud victims and to represent them and explain what it is what the banks did, how did they really defraud people of tens of billions of dollars. And I think her reputation on that advocacy is completely just.

I was disappointed that she chose to run in the Democratic Party, but once she chose that, I was not surprised at all at either her silence or her, as you said, clichéd statements in favor of Israel. Because that’s what happens when you run from within the Democratic Party. If you are to be considered as any sort of viable candidate by the party establishment, then you have to toe the line. And that’s why it’s very important for us to point out that it’s not only about the integrity of individual people, it’s about what strategies we use to in order to actually, successfully represent the interests of ordinary........

http://www.salon.com/2014/08/09/they_don%E2%80%99t_have_the_courage_how_the_two_party_system_aided_israel_disaster/

Sawant also praises Warren for her brave stances on economic policy but she said, on Foreign policy she has not distinguished herself from Hillary. No potential Democratic candidate has. Is the only hope for the left running independent lefties like Sawant at the local level and pushing out from there?