Warren/Sanders: A Populist Dream Team Ticket for 2016

[adirondacker]

by
David Goodner

"Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ recent trips to Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina have ramped up speculation that the self-described democratic socialist is seriously considering a 2016 run at the presidency. His national tour appears designed to engage a grassroots constituency base and line up the support necessary to give centrist political juggernaut Hillary Clinton a run for her money.

But the far more charismatic and popular Democratic populist, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, has dominated recent speculation about her own presidential ambitions after trips this Fall to stump for Democratic senate and gubernatorial candidates in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

These visits, perhaps not so coincidentally, come hot on the heels of a national book tour this summer promoting a new memoir that situates her aggressive economic justice agenda in the context of her lived experiences as a woman, mother, and grandmother.

Either Sanders or Warren would be welcome challengers to the Democratic establishment pick, and a fresh, dynamic, outsider campaign by either one could do more to force Hillary to watch her back than many pundits are willing to admit.

But there is a real risk of dividing an already weak and fractious electoral Left if both potential candidates were to run campaigns independent of one another.

To avoid that problem, social movement actors serious about using the presidential race as a tool to advance a democratic justice agenda against surging economic inequality should actively promote a joint Warren/Sanders ticket. This is the Left's best opportunity to engage in the 2016 presidential elections in a way that both shifts the political narrative and moves the public debate to terrain more favorable to our demands."

<SNIP>

Much more of a Great Read...

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/11/03/warrensanders-populist-dream-team-ticket-2016

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Love em both, which is why I think that would be a bad move.

They're two of the best Senators we've got, so why lose them both from the Senate, especially just to make one a veep? Veep should be somebody who isn't a Senator - a mayor, ex governor, maybe a rep.

[elleng]

2. and Jeb's dream ticket too.

I like Eliz Warren a lot, and hope she's president some year in the not too distant future. I expect Sanders on the ticket would provide such a hugely strong negative (SOCIALIST) that Dem chances would be almost nil.

[adirondacker]

8. Meh. Bernie is no further left than Roosevelt or Kennedy. He's NOT a Socialist, so stick a D after

his name and call him what he calls himself "a European Democratic Socialist" which pretty much represents the center of any other industrialized nation.

[elleng]

9. I am FINE with him,

but as 'socialist' has been in his identification, repugs will run with it.

[adirondacker]

10. I think the public is slowly learning that it's not a dirty word. Time to turn things around, be

truthful and tie the rotten snake of "free market crony capitalism" around their necks.
My favorite New York politician, Zephyr Teachout, says it best...
"We need a populist movement made of candidates and protests and clear demands."

[VanillaRhapsody]

3. OOOHHHH OOOHH Dreamweaver...

[adirondacker]

5. Cute! :)

[libodem]

4. Yeah, baby, that's what I'm talkin' about

[appalachiablue]

6. What about Warren-Dean, or Sanders-Dean.

[dotymed]

7. IMO, Sanders experience should put

him first on the ticket but I love Warrens politics also.
Unless the V.P. wielded more power (Cheney,,yuck) it would be a waste to utilize these progressive people on one ticket.
However, it may ensure that (if elected) we would hopefully, have 16 years to end the oligarchy and reorganize politics into a real representative institution.
Naysayers...IF the majority would vote, this would be very doable.