(The following was originally published in Nation of Change by Michael Trudeau.)
If you read the New Republic or receive emails from the PAC “Friends of Bernie Sanders,” you might have seen a rather strange article recently by New Republic editor Michael Kazin titled “Democrats Need Bernie Sanders to Run for President.”
As perhaps the main voice on the left calling for independent progressive senator Bernie Sanders to reject the Democratic Party in 2016 in favor of a leftist coalition, I’ll offer that there’s a lot Kazin gets right but that his ultimate conclusion is vitally flawed. Namely, Sanders cannot and will not win the Democratic primary (Mr. Kazin is correct to assume this), but it is precisely for this reason, and others, that Sanders must not enter it (Mr. Kazin is incorrect to assume that he should). Kazin argues that
1) Sanders should run as a Democrat,2) Sanders cannot win as a Democrat and that Hillary Clinton is a shoe-in,3) Sanders will give HOPE to progressives inside the Democratic Party, and4) Progressives are currently disenchanted because they had HOPE for progress in 2008 but are butting their heads against neoliberal Obama.