DEC 16, 2019
We’re now seven weeks away
from the Iowa caucuses, the first voting in the Democratic presidential race.
After that, frontloaded primaries might decide the nominee by late spring. For
progressives torn between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — or fervently
committed to one of them — choices on how to approach the next few months could
change the course of history.
As a kindred activist put it
to me when we crossed paths last weekend, “Bernie speaks our language”—a
shorthand way of saying that the Bernie 2020 campaign is a fight for a truly
transformative and humanistic future. “Not me. Us.”
I actively support Bernie
because his voice is ours for genuine democracy and social justice. Hearing
just a few minutes from a recent Bernie speech is
a reminder of just how profoundly that is true.
At the same time, many
thoughtful and well-informed progressives are supporting Warren. While
I’m wary of
the conventional foreign-policy outlook that she laid
out early this year and reaffirmed days
ago, there’s much to applaud in Warren’s record and proposals on economic and
social issues. Notwithstanding her declaration of being “a capitalist to my bones,” Warren has
earned corporate America’s hostility.
Overall, Wall Street despises
Elizabeth Warren. With some
exceptions, the titans of “the Street” are highly
averse to her regulatory agenda, fear
her plans such as a wealth
tax, and definitely
don’t want her to become president.
What’s more, the power
structure of top corporate Democrats is out to crush the Warren campaign as
well as the Sanders campaign. Not coincidentally, corporate media attacks rose
along with Warren’s poll numbers. The corporate system’s antipathy toward her
isn’t as high as it is toward Sanders, but it’s pretty damn high.
Meanwhile, powerful status-quo
interests are eager to see acrimony develop between Sanders and Warren forces.
“The year began with a
weak-looking Sen. Elizabeth Warren posing no threat to Sanders; by summer,
Warren had jumped past Sanders and the rest of the field,” the Washington
Post’s David Weigel noted days ago. “Now, with Warren’s momentum fading, the
two Democrats most broadly acceptable to the left have been splitting
endorsements and capturing separate swaths of the electorate.”
Let’s face it. Supporters of
Sanders and Warren will probably need each other if one of them is going to win
the nomination.
Scenarios for Sanders or
Warren to ultimately go it alone at the mid-July national convention in
Milwaukee are unlikely. Much more probable is a necessity of teaming up to combine
the leverage of their delegates.
In the shorter term, given the
structure and rules of
the Iowa caucuses coming up on February 3, tacit teamwork between Sanders and
Warren supporters would benefit both while undermining the corporate Democrats
in contention.
The approach taken so far by
Sanders and Warren on the campaign trail suggests how their supporters ought to
proceed in relation to each other—illuminating real and important differences
without rancor, while teaming up to fend off policy attacks from
corporate-backed opponents.
What continues to be in effect
between Sanders and Warren—and what is needed among their supporters on the
ground—is the equivalent of a nonaggression pact. At the same time, we should
be willing to draw clear distinctions between the policy positions of those two
candidates.
The need is for supporters to
openly explain reasons for preferring Warren or Sanders while avoiding the
start of a mutual demolition derby. In the process of strengthening progressive
forces, it’s vital to defeat corporate Democrats, before proceeding to defeat
Donald Trump.
“Electability” can be debated
endlessly, but anyone claiming total certainty as to which candidate would be
more likely to beat Trump is overreaching. At the same time, the need for a
Sanders-Warren united front should be clear—as clear as the imperative of
rolling back the monstrous right-wing power that has controlled the presidency
during the last three years.
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