Is Bernie Sanders really all there is? Lessons from Pat Robertson’s insurgency
Last edited Sat Oct 4, 2014, 05:19 PM - Edit history (2)
To start, I don't believe in using the word "unelectable" barring some legal issue in play. It is too often attached to people in hopes it will become a self fullfilling prophecy. Personally, I refuse to call any good candidate unelectable. Describe the obstacles they must overcome.
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/04/is_bernie_sanders_really_all_there_is_lessons_from_pat_robertsons_insurgency/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
Pat Robertson in 1988, Bernie Sanders in 2014 (Credit: AP/Peter Southwick/Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)
SATURDAY, OCT 4, 2014 08:00 AM EDT
Is Bernie Sanders really all there is? Lessons from Pat Robertson’s insurgency
If Warren sits 2016 out, an unelectable longshot may be liberals' only hope. Let's take a lesson from Pat Robertson
PAUL ROSENBERG
With the 2016 elections still two years away, and Elizabeth Warren saying that she will not run, the most likely challenger on the left appears to Bernie Sanders, the independent Vermont socialist, re-elected with 71 percent of the vote in 2012, who caucuses with the Democrats. Forget the White House, some critics would say: Sanders doesn’t even have a shot at giving Hillary a strong primary challenge, should he choose to run as a Democrat, so why bother?
The answer is easy: 1988. That year, not one, but two long-shot outsider primary campaigns had profound impacts on American politics: Jesse Jackson on the left, and Pat Robertson on the right. As Sanders actively tests the waters, the question of just how to make the most of the opportunity is both timely and important.
“It’s unlikely that Senator Sanders would win the presidential election in 2016,” said Darcy Burner, former executive director of the House Progressive Caucus. But, she added quickly, “A Bernie Sanders run could make a big difference in terms of changing the national conversation if it’s done right, and if the activists on the left focus on it.
“One of the key tactics the political status quo uses to maintain the existing balance of power is to distract people with false binary choices about key problems facing the country. For instance: should we cut Social Security now or later?” Burner said. “People assume that because those are the choices they hear, then those must be the only choices. This tactic is used across every policy area.”
For years, along these same lines, the Progressive Caucus has developed a People’s Budget, solidly aligned with supermajority views of the American people — protecting Social Security and Medicare, for example — which the donor-class-dominated political media routinely ignores, even though those budgets have also done a better job of bringing budget deficits down than the various more prominent proposals. Sanders has been the one consistent voice in the Senate supporting the People’s Budget — a strong indication of what Burner sees in his potential candidacy.
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= new reply since forum marked as read
not anti-work. 
... I hope, if Bernie is going to run (as a Democrat) that he introduces a book which explains his vision for America on the same day he throws his towel in the ring. I have high hopes. 
The people who will be upset by the socialism cry and hubris wouldn't vote for Bernie anyway. The rest of us understand that Lennin and Stalin didn't really implement socialism.
