Bernie Sanders

There is a serious question for progressives to address: If we find ourselves to the left of the Democratic Party establishment, should we try to move the party to the left, or abandon it and work with a minor party?

Nader chose the latter option. He can reasonably be criticized by those who think he made the wrong choice. In fact, I'm one of those. If he had run in the Democratic primaries, I would have voted for him, but with Nader running in the general election as a Green, I voted for Gore. Furthermore, if Nader had chosen to exercise his right to run in the primaries, Gore would probably have become President, and the country and the world would have been better off.

The bashing of Nader was at times intemperate but the underlying substantive criticism of him was correct.

The attacks on Bernie, of course, have no such justification. He did what Nader should have done. The people who denounce him because he dared to run in a primary against their chosen candidate are saying that progressives shouldn't run in Democratic primaries and that progressives shouldn't run in the general election. This amounts to saying that we should just STFU. It's fundamentally bone-headed.