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2017-07-23T16:23:02+00:00

SUNDAY, JUL 23, 2017 06:00 AM EDT Help us Bernie Sanders, youre our only hope: Why the beloved progressive should start a labor party The most popular politician in America could leave a major legacy if he would only start a third party KEITH A. SPENCER Poor Bernie Sanders. Hes by far the most popular politician in the United States more so than the president by a long shot and yet, at 75, hes likely too old to run for president again. Polls show that, compared to Democrats or Republicans platforms, Americans overwhelmingly prefer Sanders policy proposals, and yet the Democratic Party, with whom the independent senator from Vermont caucuses, wont explicitly profess its support for any of them. Sanders frenemies in the Democratic Party refuse to learn any lessons from his popularity. Instead of adopting some of the septuagenarians ever-popular rhetoric, the Democrats have turned their backs on him, promoting a big donorapproved platform characterized by ideologically vacant opposition. Anti-Trump yet pro-nothing . So as the de facto leader of the American left, reviled by his cousins in the Democratic Party, whats a democratic socialist to do? Just as Barack Obama founded the political group Organizing for Action to help push his platform, Sanders founded a political organizing group in 2016, dubbed Our Revolution, an attempt to redirect his supporters energy toward other candidates and issues that Sanders himself believed in. Yet Our Revolution has struggled to maintain the incredible organizing power of the Sanders campaign; shortly after its founding, the nonprofit suffered from internal turmoil, including a staff revolt in which half the senior staff quit. And of the 45 candidates in local races and special elections that Our Revolution has supported so far in 2017, 29 lost their races many of whom were candidates going up against mainstream Democrats supported by the party, including progressive congressman Keith Ellisons bid for Democratic National Committee chair, which he lost to entrenched insider and former Labor Secretary Tom Perez. Yet while the slate of candidates supported by Sanders PAC have always been left-of-mainstream progressive Democrats, they have often faced precisely the same demons that Sanders faced in the primary: namely, the battle between entrenched Democratic Party interests and the more populist progressivism of Sanders. Lest you forget, Sanders is not a Democrat. Establishment Democrats are still quite wary of him, and there is ample evidence that party brass conspired against him during the primary in order to ensure Hillary Clinton would win the nomination. more http://www.salon.com/2017/07/23/help-us-bernie-sanders-you-are-our-only-hope-why-the-beloved-progressive-should-start-a-labor-party/

Post removed Sun Jul 23, 2017, 12:23 PM Jul 2017

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Post removed (Original Post) Post removed Jul 2017 OP

I wonder why OR has been fading. JNelson6563 Jul 2017 #1

Oh great. Split us into two factions. calimary Jul 2017 #2

JNelson6563

(28,151 posts)

1. I wonder why OR has been fading.

Reply to Post removed (Original post)

Sun Jul 23, 2017, 12:27 PM

Jul 2017

This article is a clue. Division in the face of the outrageous madness we are up against is a counter-productive strategy at this point. But of course that is how it's going to be.

Sad.

calimary

(90,017 posts)

2. Oh great. Split us into two factions.

Reply to Post removed (Original post)

Sun Jul 23, 2017, 12:28 PM

Jul 2017

Well, THAT'LL ensure we never see the inside of the Oval Office again