Besides Bernie and Jill, what other progressive candidates are out there?

It’s a good question. There will be plenty of politicians willing to pick up the movement and use it for their personal success. But are they real? Clinton has claimed to be “progressive”. Well, now you get into defining what “progressive” even means.

There is no other “Bernie” out there. Bernie had a legitimacy that was built over many years–his lifetime really. So what you’ll have, I think, are politicians who are “progressive” on some issues–not so much on others.

The closest to Bernie, I have seen, may be Dennis Kucinich but he’s no real option.

I hear certain names–as future leaders of the movement, with Warren at the top of the list. Sherrod Brown gets some love. I’m skeptical that either really fits the bill. Tulsi Gabbard is clearly trying to hop on board but there is some skepticism involving her as well.

There will not be the level of trust that came with Bernie.

But let’s be honest–if Chomsky ran he would have zero chance. There has to be some way to reach out to less progressive voters on some level or it will be a marginalized movement. It may need a Tulsi Gabbard or Elizabeth Warren to move bits and pieces forward. That may be where its future success lies.

I’m sure there are many progressive leaders out there. But within the current strong two party system and a media that holds up the “system”, it will be difficult to get traction. How would Cornell West do? Many in the black community can’t stand him.

No easy answers here.

But if the movement is to go anywhere, it will have to be in bits and pieces for now. It will have to be small victories. The political reality is just stacked against it right now.

The anger in the nation may be led easier by populism than progressivism. And populists can have all sorts of motives and beliefs. See Trump. No one would call him progressive.

But sadly, there is no progressive like Bernie that we’ll see in our lifetime.

I’m sure there are more Jill Steins. I never heard of her before the election year.

They are out there.

Maybe we’ll be surprised.

Billy_T wrote:

The Socialist Alternative is a possible source for future, leftist leaders.

http://www.socialistalternative.org/

They have an elected official in Seattle (Kshama Sawant) at the moment. Hoping they can expand their presence quickly and broadly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kshama_Sawant

It will be interesting to see how a socialist movement will do going forward. In the past, anything that was “anti-capitalism” was “anti-America” and there was no traction to be gained.

While Bernie is no true socialist, he wasn’t afraid of the word either–and he did pretty well.

So we’ll see what the future holds.

I still think it’s an uphill battle but it may not be so far to the top of the hill now.

It doesn’t matter.

This was the window. It is now shut. And the planet is doomed.

Sanders cannot go again. And, in any event, the establishment will be ready next time, and Hillary – sitting presidents just don’t get defeated in their party’s primary. Unless she gets impeached, which isn’t likely. This was the golden opportunity, and it’s gone.

nittany ram wrote:

Zooey wrote:

It doesn’t matter.

This was the window. It is now shut. And the planet is doomed.

Sanders cannot go again. And, in any event, the establishment will be ready next time, and Hillary – sitting presidents just don’t get defeated in their party’s primary. Unless she gets impeached, which isn’t likely. This was the golden opportunity, and it’s gone.

Yeah, unfortunately you are most likely correct. The ember of hope has been stamped out by the size 13 boot of establishment politics – probably for good. The next election cycle will feature the standard mainstream style candidates whose sole purpose is to ensure nothing changes.

Oh well, we still have football…

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Well, I think E.Warren is significantly better than Clinton. Not a Sanders-type, but still, I think she would be an improvement. So, I think thats the ‘best case scenario’, unfortunately.

But who knows.

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