Sanders, running as a Green candidate, would be no Nader, who as an independent was completely blacked out by the media for the entire election, got on no televised debates, and had to spend most of his time and money fighting legal battles, many of them unsuccessful, just to get his name on state ballots. Sanders, in contrast, would be a candidate known nationwide, thanks to his primary campaign in every state. His polling numbers would be so high that the media would have to cover him, and to allow him into the presidential debates. And he'd also have plenty of money. Just imagine how the Sanders supporters, who have already ponied up an unheard of $182 million during the primaries, all in small mostly two-digit contributions, would respond to a Sanders run in the general election on a Green ticket! The money would pour in and in even greater amounts, and it would be matched by federal election funds, making him fully competitive with the corporate-donation-funded Democratic and Republican candidates Clinton and Trump.
My guess is that we'd see the same kind of surprise in such a "run-off" election that Austrians just saw in their presidential run-off, with the crusty old socialist defeating both the candidate of Wall Street, Hillary Clinton, and the neo-fascist, anti-immigrant nativist Trump. Sanders' chances would be even better if, as appears possible, Republicans who cannot stomach a Trump candidacy, turn to the Conservative Party and run a candidate too, splitting the Republican vote.
2016 is clearly not 2000, and Sanders is clearly not another Nader. Not even close. The American electorate this year -- including half the Democratic Party, virtually all independents, and many Republicans too -- are fed up with the corrupt political and economic system in the US. How else to explain the stunning success to date of the Sanders campaign? Who, a year ago, would have imagined an old Jewish guy with run-away white hair, and a self-described socialist into the bargain, giving one of the most well-connected political icons in the party a run for her money (literally!)? Who, a year ago, would have imagined the Republican party being taken over by a television huckster, misogynist and fast-buck artist like Donald Trump?
As in Austria, the anger and frustration of the electorate produced two insurgent candidacies, one on the right and one on the left, and there has been nothing like it in American history for a century.
The beauty of a Sanders run as a Green candidate for president is that if he were to win (or even if he were to lose to Trump, for that matter), odds are he would at least outpoll Clinton, the Democratic candidate. That would be the end of the Democratic Party, that wretched graveyard of progressive politics for the past 70 years or more.
It would also instantly propel the Greens to major party status, ensuring them a spot going forward on every state ballot, and millions of people who would likely become members and financial backers in future elections.
If Bernie Sanders really wants to see his "political revolution" succeed, this is the way he can do it: by running as the Green candidate for president.
If Austria's van der Bellen can do it, so can Bernie.
DAVE LINDORFF is a member of ThisCantBeHappening!, the uncompromised, collectively run, five-time Project Censored Award-winning online alternative news site. His work, and that of colleagues JOHN GRANT, JESS GUH, GARY LINDORFF, ALFREDO LOPEZ, LINN WASHINGTON, JR. and the late CHARLES M. YOUNG, can be found at www.thiscantbehappening.net
(Article changed on May 23, 2016 at 15:33)
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