Marv Gandall wrote: Bernie is certainly doing what he is doing right now to very good effect. I was making an observation about the prospects for a third party if he is denied the nomination, not proposing it as a strategy. Whatever Louis, Carrol, Shane and others may think or hope, urban workers, women, blacks, Hispanics, students, environmentalists, gays, etc. will continue to vote Democratic as long as they see that party providing the only possibility for defending their gains in the legislative, regulatory, and judicial arenas from Republican attack.
Even those liberal Democrats who are more sympathetic to the Green Party platform, as we saw in the Nader campaign, will still stick with their party for this reason and even denounce a third party seen as paving the way for Republicans to win elections. A third party will have to begin consistently electing representatives at the state and local levels before it is regarded as a serious alternative, and it won't become a serious alternative until a frustrated Democratic rank-and-file, drawn from the unions and social movements, begin to join it large numbers. I suggested this is still a very unlikely outcome despite the remarkable groundswell of support for Sanders who will join them in supporting Clinton against the Republican candidate should she get the nomination. -------------- next part -------------- *********************************8 I think Marv may be missing part of what's going on here. Isn't the very same lesser evilist realpolitik in whose name voters are perennially urged to vote for Democrats also being invoked as a reason to support Hillary as the "electable" candidate? And isn't an entire cohort of mostly younger voters showing itself to be oblivious to precisely such "pragmatic" arguments, to the utter incomprehension and frustration of the Democratic establishment? Why could not at least some of these younger voters, having got nowhere with the Dems, supply a base for a third party? Hope this post arrives in timely fashion. Jim
_______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
