Chris Hedges and Ralph Nader on the Complicity of Bernie Sanders
Not left enough for many on the actual left.
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/video_chris_hedges_and_ralph_nader_on_the_bernie_sanders_set-up_20151110
“Well, Bernie Sanders has been around a long time,” says Nader, whose latest books include “Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State” and “Return to Sender: Unanswered Letters to the President, 2001-2015.” “He can see beyond the next hill, or around the next corner. I think I know what his game plan is. Basically, he wants to arouse public opinion in a progressive manner, domestically. He’s got real problems with military and foreign policy positions that he has not taken, progressively. But he wants to build progressive public opinion so that it pulls the Democratic party a little bit. But he doesn’t want to do this in any way that can take a vote away from the nominee, if you say, Hillary Clinton.
So, he’s lost his bargaining power electorally, when he said he’ll endorse the Democratic nominee five months ago. Without saying it depends on who it is, he would have had some bargaining power. So, he’s finished in terms of any electoral dynamics when the primary season is over.”
“Do you have a theory as to why?” Hedges asks.
“Yeah, but his job now, as he sees it, is to mobilize and focus the enthusiasm of progressive-minded people but here’s where the contradiction is,” Nader explains. “If you don’t go into the political arena to win and you gotta go after the leader in the polls, Hillary Clinton, you don’t have to do it nastily, but she’s very vulnerable. A militarist, a Wall Street corporatist, the worst on her record. ... Here’s the contradiction Chris, if he doesn’t go electorally in a serious way to win, then [Bernie Sanders] is setting up millions of Americans, and young Americans, for a huge morale collapse. When in April or May he appears on the stage with Hillary Clinton, if she’s the nominee and the winner of the primary and he endorses her. And then, he is folded into the whole ‘Clinton War-Wall Street machine,’ and he goes back to the Senate as a hero. He has a little more influence in the Senate. Maybe he gets two senators to sign on to his single-payer bill. He couldn’t get one other senator to sign on to his single-payer bill. He has a huge mailing list. And he continues on his merry way.”
Sanders should not endorse Clinton unless she endorses his agenda publicly, Nader explains.“If he doesn’t do that, he’s gonna go down as a total wimp, as a totally complicit person with the subsequent crimes of the Hillary Clinton administration,” he adds.
For Nader’s take on the reasons why a third party will never succeed in American politics and why the Obama administration really rejected the Keystone XL Pipeline, watch the full video below:
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Hedges. I love Bernie Sanders, and from what I do know the criticism he's getting from these two stem partially from the fact that he didn't run as a third party candidate (Hedges), which they have a point in one respect, but I also respect Bernie's choice to run as a dem. Regardless of what they think, or what we think, one thing is certain. We absolutely need to get Bernie elected, but none of us here know for certain if that will happen, so we have to look beyond that.
The big thing and the only reason I bother to respond in this thread, is the fact that the beginning of a social movement IS underway. There's no denying it. Bernie is our beginning, but whether he gets elected or not, we can't stop here, and it won't. So, let's not throw stones at these two incredible men who are catalysts for change, a rarity these days. Let's embrace their way of thinking, along with our understanding and embracement of Bernie's platform & realize we are on the cusp of what may very well be a real social movement that is only beginning. You can't see an era, until it becomes historic. 
Having said that, it doesn't take away one whit from this campaign for Bernie Sanders, the President we absolutely need. We haven't gone left nearly enough, no argument there, step by step, people. Don't kill the messenger, we're building from all of these pushes.
I also believe any party unity meme needs to come after the election, NOT BEFORE, then and only then, because it is self-serving for HRC and self-defeating for Bernie, and we may NEVER be at the point to turn any support over to HRC, we're here to attain victory, furthermore, in the end it will lie with each individual to follow their heart on that decision, if there's ever the need. (Note to admins: not calling for anything either way, just for the sake of clarity...)
One thing I know with certainty, all of our greatest minds, Chomsky, Hedges, Wolff, & BERNIE, etc., are all sounding the alarms and saying the same things, for damned good reason.
(Editing to add: I do think Bernie entered the race, never thinking he'd get this kind of support, so there's that. His resounding success in reaching hearts & minds is yet another indication of the power that's awakening in people. Either way, the force within is growing, about damn time. What happens next? If we win, we win, it grows. If we lose, the wave grows. We might see discontent grow that wave to unfathomable proportions.)
Thanks for my seat belts in my car now stay out of politics .
