Why Won't the Left Get Behind Bernie Sanders '16?
By Bill Scher - August 18, 2014
"There is a wariness of Hillary Clinton in some corners of the left.
"Will Hillary be with Wall Street like she's been all along?" asks the executive director of Democracy for America. "Generalissima Hillary Clinton," scoffs Ralph Nader—and that was before her hawkish interview with The Atlantic. Clinton’s skeptics want her to face a primary challenger, if not to defeat her then to apply enough left-flank pressure so she will not have an incentive to drift rightward in the general election (or as president). Strangely, they are ignoring someone who is already auditioning for the role of progressive populist challenger, and who has the chops to back it up: Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Left-wing Democrats pine for Sen. Elizabeth Warren. But she has emphatically said she is not running, nor is she doing anything prospective candidates have to do to prepare to run, like visit early primary states.
Sanders is practically identical to Warren when it comes to the issues progressive populists care about—and where they consider Clinton squishy. He wants to break up the big banks so they can’t be “too big to fail.” He wants to see bankers responsible for the 2008 crash thrown in jail. He was one of only four senators, including Warren, to oppose President Obama’s nominee for U.S. trade representative in protest of the White House’s push for regional trade agreements with Europe and Asia. He would increase, not cut, Social Security benefits.
For liberals who consider Clinton suspect on military matters, Sanders voted against the most recent defense spending bill, saying it was another “bloated military budget.” Warren, who represents a state with six military bases, voted for it.
Sanders holds an even bigger advantage over Warren: He’s actually interested in running."
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http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/08/18/why_wont_the_left_get_behind_bernie_sanders_16_123680.html
Excellent article and argument, well worth the entire read.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Why can the GOP nominate Reagan and Bush W. Bush and get away with it? Because they don't succumb to defeatist thinking the way the Left does.
We need to vote for our beliefs and for the person who best represents our vision and values. Not some grifting, triangulating, opportunist that would disown us as soon as the election was announced.
Thank you, Chan790, for your post. 
--imm
and would love to vote for him. I can not and will not vote for Hillary. Bernie may be an independent, but Hillary is a Republican through and through. 
