Assuming Bernie loses the nomination, he’ll be too old to run again in 2020. Is there any young upcoming democrats who are going to be able to carry on his message and appeal to the same people? I’m not from the US but from my understanding there is no one else like him in congress /senate at all?
Probably not. Economic populism may not be a big sell in 2020 if the economy is humming along. Plus, it will have been 12 years since the financial crisis, so it will have faded from memory.
No, there isn’t. And Bernie blew his chance by not getting out early enough. Had he campaigned for POTUS in 2008, I think he’d have easily beaten Clinton to the nomination this year.
Elizabeth Warren has a similar anti-corruption, anti-big bank, outsider approach.
Yeah, she’s who I was thinking of. But if Clinton wins the presidency, I don’t think 2020 will be the year to look at for a viable populist leftist candidate.
I don’t think lefty populists/socialists need to be looking at the presidency. It’s something that needs to be developed locally and gradually move upwards. Otherwise, one huge radical shift at the national level has one shot to succeed, and if it doesn’t, it sets back that movement decades.
Start with city councils, school boards, county commissions, move up to state houses. That’s where good socialist policies will do amazing work and be readily felt by people-- locally: strong community rec programs, libraries, fund community colleges, region-wide wifi, etc. Then state-wide, fund infrastructure projects, fund local school districts properly, state colleges, etc.
Once people fully understand that socialism isn’t communism, and that supporting a well-funded government doesn’t mean “stealing money from me to give to some lazy deadbeats who don’t want to work,” then we can start thinking national offices.
We’ve been poisoned so long on right-wing economic theories (Taxes are TOO HIGH! Government is EVIL! Unions are EVIL! Privatization is GREAT! Investors matter MORE than workers! Socialism means subsidizing POOR PEOPLE’S LAZY LIFESTYLES!), that we need to rebuild what our country once was from the ground up, not the top down.
Well, there’s Elizabeth Warren – but she’s not much younger than Hillary and I’m sure she’ll never run for POTUS.
There’s Dennis Kucinich, he’s still young, but for some reason he never got the kind of traction Bernie is getting.
There’s Ralph Nader, but . . . never mind Ralph Nader.
It’s fun to think of a new party coming in and marginalizing one of the old guard–either one really. The D party has its issues, but the R party is ripe for pillaging. I wonder if there is a viable way to wrap the drivers of Mr. Sanders’ motives in conservative terms?
Or if that’s even necessary–it seems the real engine behind Sanders’ campaign is the drive to take down the plutocracy that keeps normal, good people divided and squabbling amongst themselves over shit that really doesn’t matter. Maybe rather than focusing on the personal-level differences of left v. right the political conversation could be refocused on people vs. moneyed interests. You can develop that at the local level readily enough and once it bites it should pretty much explode nationally on its own.
Bernie Sanders will be too old at that time, but look at up-and-comer Tulsi Gabbard. She’s only 34 now, but will be a force to reckon with if Washington doesn’t defeat her. She’s a war vet, a smart woman and very strong. I was hoping that she would run as Bernie’s VP, as she doesn’t trust Hillary (as no one should) and actually resigned the DNC chair she held last week to stand on Bernie’s side.
I don’t know. Gabbard is a Vaishnavist of some kind, and occasionally gets flak for being a “cultist” from people with an axe to grind. There’s some religious baggage there. Then again, it’s probably not really any weirder intrinsically than a Zionist Southern Baptist.
Ok she’s actually a Hare Krishna, well at least they are monotheists but yes that would be a hard sell to the American public. A “mainstream” hindu would definitely be more accepted I think.
Kucinich is three years older than Warren. Don’t be confused by his hot young wife.
Don’t look for another presidential candidate like Sanders. Look for a bunch of young Senate and House candidates whom you’ve never heard of before who are inspired by Sanders to run. Then, two or three cycles later, look for one of them to run for President.
Exactly. And just as important, we should see some young candidates you’ve never heard of running for state legislative positions, city councils, school boards, county commissions, etc.
I started to say Hare Krishna, but I didn’t find confirmation that she was ISKCON. But yeah, apparently something vaguely like that.