Why the Socialist from Vermont is the Real Anti-Hillary

by | May 21, 2015 | Carolina Strategic Analysis, Features | 10 comments

If Hillary Clinton’s campaign somehow collapses over the next couple months, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley stands to benefit. The problem is that among Democrats there isn’t any appetite for an anti-Hillary. Don’t let the netroots people fool you; they’re not broadly representative of rank-and-file Democrats. They’re ready for Hillary. Period.

Because Clinton’s nomination is seen as assured (despite the attempts of media outlets to portray otherwise), some liberal Democrats are feeling free to vote their heart. And their heart is with Bernie Sanders, the Independent-turned-Democrat self-described socialist from Vermont.

Sanders could become the Ron Paul of the left: someone with no chance to win but who attracts a cult following because of his political philosophy. Long before Elizabeth Warren was on the scene, Sanders fought against income inequality and the influence of big money in government. He’s praised Scandinavian-style social welfare policies and straight-up says that the U.S. should be more like Europe. Yesterday, he introduced a bill that would make tuition free for all four-year colleges. In sum, Sanders is the kind of person who many progressive Democrats wish they had more of in their party.

As for O’Malley, his campaign is based on the fact that he was able to push through a liberal agenda in Maryland – not exactly a difficult thing to do. But he did it with all the trappings of the governor’s office and the political realities that restrict major change. O’Malley occupies the pragmatic liberal space in the field. One might notice that it’s the same space occupied by Hillary Clinton. If Democrats want someone who can work with Congress and hammer out an agenda that results in incremental progress and a few significant reforms, they’ll go with Hillary, every single time.

In addition, it’s worth pointing out that O’Malley left office unpopular and even failed to get his own Lieutenant Governor elected to succeed him in his dark blue state. In the end, O’Malley’s record just isn’t impressive enough for Democrats to consider him as a viable alternative to the Hillary behemoth.

That leaves Sanders. He won’t win, but if he just succeeds moving Hillary to the left, his campaign will have been a success. His team probably hopes the last couple weeks are a harbinger of things to come, after a surprisingly strong campaign launch and a greater degree of media interest. If he can keep up the momentum, then Bernie Sanders will be the real anti-Hillary in the race – and, perhaps even more impressively, could play a significant role in shaping the agenda of the Clinton White House for the next four years.

10 Comments

  1. Russell Scott Day

    Bernie Sanders could in fact win by simply getting those youths you see in the photographs around him to vote. When he speaks of free University Tuitions he is speaking about the GI Bill for all. The Exceptional Tax, Progressive tax are what the economist Piketty recommended to reform the wealth disparity which was created by criminal minds called Financial Engineers. What is missing is the Banking Transparency that Piketty also called for. Without Western economic alliances that cause the transnational banking transparency to be a necessity if taxes are to be properly paid and divided. Citizenship for the rich is walking where it is easier to hide the money. US the UK citizenship movement has gone from 325 a year to 3,000 a year, so Obama’s complaint to the UK about its Cayman and Cook Island banking regulations was warranted.

  2. cosmicjanitor

    Hillary Clinton is being coalesced into the democratic frontrunner by a very compromised US. media apparatus in cooperation with the corporate power structures that actually run this sorry country. For all the theater to the contrary, she, like Obama, is more republikan than democrat and is a longstanding establishment insider; pushing her un-primarried into frontrunner status is a measured political ploy to assure the election of a republikan as president – which will mark the transformation of this country into an authoritarian state. More often than not, like any true republikan, Wynne likes stating his opinion as fact, as in: ‘The problem is that among democrats there isn’t any appetite for an anti-Hillary’ – says who, the US. media and their rightwing conservative mouthpieces? Not withstanding that she is a tainted, debased windbag who means not a thing she says, Hillary is unelectable in the extreme.

  3. Andy

    It almost seems as if many commenters didn’t read Flynn’s piece. I clicked on it expecting the typical Republican smear of Sanders and Clinton both, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that his analysis is spot-on! He uses a couple of tacky buzzwords, primarily “socialist” and “cult,” to describe Bernie, but the actual analysis is correct. O’Malley would likely benefit as a “moderate” like Hillary; Bernie probably has no chance to win (especially with the GOP working to smear him every day), but if he pulls Hillary to the left, he will have succeeded in at least one of his goals, to move the party to a more progressive stance; and Scandinavian social democracies are a positive model in Bernie’s eyes (and mine).
    But this was no hatchet job, and Flynn wasn’t describing or imputing any “simplistic machinations” on the part of the various Democratic factions; he was just giving an pretty straightforward opinion.
    I remember 1992 when Hillary was vilified by mainstream Dems as far too leftist with her hairband and Wellesley radical feminist pro-abortion blah blah blah. And in fact she was a pretty left-wing liberal dating to her service as a staff lawyer for the Watergate committee under Sam Ervin. But like most of her/our generation, she’s moved right with the rest of the country and with age. And Bernie Sanders has stayed very much on point in his views, unlike most politicians.
    Personally, I respect and admire both of them, despite disagreeing with some of their positions, and I look forward to real debates between them–unlike the antics of their GOP counterparts. But I certainly wish more mainstream media people and, particularly, Republican commentators, were as honest and respectful as Flynn seems to be here.

  4. Carole Schaefer

    I Agree!!! I don’t understand this mentality that pre-judges a candidates chances based on some fantasy they have concocted from their own minds. Could it be from the controlled press? Bernie Sanders is the Roosevelt we have been needing for a long time. His ideas are fresh, ethical and concerned about the people he governs. He would make an outstanding President based on his record.

  5. Walter Rand

    To “disgusted”: Ron Paul and Rand Paul are not the same person. (Father & son tend to be different people.)

  6. larry

    John, you really should stick to the simplistic machinations of your Republican candidates and there financial benefactors. However it does appear that some folks have responded in a way that could educate and edify. You should take note, learn and thank them.

  7. Tom

    Well he has always identified himself as a democratic socialist. He has identified himself in Vermont with three statewide progressive/liberty/socialist parties. He has been very candid about his admiration for Scandinavian socialist parties and I believe if he decides to enter the Democratic nomination race he will have to change his registration to Democrat. If you say you are a socialist, if you run for local and statewide office as a socialist, I think you are probably a socialist.. There are, of course, various kinds of socialists.

    • Chris Telesca

      VT doesn’t have voter registration by political party. All VT voters are by law unaffiliated. They run for office by party. And Bernie Sanders has already filed to run for President as a Democrat – just like Howard Dean did in 2004.

  8. Dan R

    John, I have to take issue with your assumption that there is no appetite for a candidate other than Clinton among Democrats. I would agree that she is a prohibitive favorite for a number of quantifiable reasons. But we need look no further than her run in 2008 to see that one who is considered the prohibitive favorite for a number of sound reasons is not certain to secure the nomination.

    Obviously it took a remarkably well planned and executed campaign on the part of Obama to beat her, but she failed to secure the nomination in 2008 because the majority of the base of the party rejected her. Based primarily, I believe, on the perception that she had taken a position on invading Iraq that was based on political calculation rather than providing leadership on that crucial issue.

    I will give Clinton her due. She was a fine Senator. Guys in the Pentagon were impressed with her as a member of the Armed Services Committee. She did her homework. She asked the right questions. And God knows there are some clueless folks who get elected to the House and Senate who are hopelessly in over their heads when faced with complex issues. She knows her stuff. She’s up to the job.

    She was a fine Secretary of State. Most objective observers give her high marks. There is no one among the Republican contenders who has anything approaching her foreign policy expertise (and, terrifyingly, they are all consulting the same “experts” who brought us the biggest foreign policy blunder in a couple of generations).

    In short, I would have no qualms about voting for her in November and trying to persuade others to do the same should she be the nominee.

    You assert that Clinton and O’Malley occupy the same, to use your characterization, pragmatic liberal space. I believe you are incorrect. I have a hard time calling Clinton a liberal in any traditional, 20th century American definition of the word. I don’t mean that to be a criticism of her. I simply think it is an inaccurate characterization of her. I suppose that, after 35 or 40 years of our politics drifting considerably to the right and hearing so many describe anyone who is to the left of Genghis Khan as a “liberal”, I suppose you could call her that.

    I believe I am not alone in desiring a nominee who is a liberal rather than nominating Clinton. I admit I have nothing beyond anecdotal evidence to support my contention that there is significant support for my position. Polling this early is based so much on name recognition and little else that it has no value. The polling on the Republican side is equally valueless at this point. Based on current polling, a loud mouthed reality TV personality (Trump) would make the cut for the Fox News? debate ahead of a twice elected Governor and a U.S, Senator. And anyone who has enough brain power to remain standing upright knows Trump isn’t ever going to make an actual run for the office.

    Sanders is a great guy. But he isn’t going to be elected president. I concur that O’Malley stands to benefit from Hillary faltering. But that isn’t because he occupies the same space. If he is positioned to gain traction he will succeed because he is positioned where the majority of Democratic primary voters are.

  9. wafranklin

    I take it your entire aim here is to demean Bernie Sanders. Hmmmmm. You not that O’Malley is a centrist, perhaps likes Third Way or DLC, both Clinton products of ill repute. Yes, I can easily remember the New Way Democrats and the vicious Clinton actions which helped line the country up for the debacles which characterized the late 2000s, like the Great Recession (repealing Glass-Steagall, destruction of welfare, feeding the insatiable Wall St monster (i.e. Rubin) and other idiocies. Perhaps a few of Bernie Sanders prescriptions would mitigate the harms which accompanies by the Clintonian contributions to financialization of the US and destruction of jobs via NAFTA, no to mention bondage to the banks. Sanders projections look benign compared the Bonnie and Clyde (Hillary and Bill). A little overt socialism (hint we already use “socialism”) would not hurt. So quit throwing rocks at Bernie, he is absolutely rational compared to the other fools flitting about.

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