The legacy of "The Left"

[Tom Rinaldo]

15. As to your basic point

I suspect if you and I ever had the opportunity and pleasure of sitting down for a long talk, we would agree on many points and still have some differences between us on others. Nothing unusual about that. I praise you for writing this OP because of the subject you introduced for discussion. How does a radical indictment of the status quo galvanize a governing majority of Americans to march beneath that banner? Pulling that off is the difference between victory and essential social change on one hand, and defeat and the continued hollowing out of America on the other.

For too many decades now we have erred, whether by design or fear, on the side of blandness - and the dangerous repercussions of that are all around us. But there have always been too many on the Left who show an enduring difficulty to engage with most Americans where they, for whatever reasons, currently stand - and too often that results in should be allies to our cause being repelled by rather than drawn toward it.

I am proud of Bernie Sanders for showing such leadership and courage in trying to thread that difficult needle, and doing so so astonishingly well, given how far short so many others have fallen in that quest before him. And I unhesitatingly support his endorsement of Hilary Clinton at this stage in this election.