That bit of brutal honesty from Sanders really ought to be the focus of more discussion. More importantly, it ought to motivate people to take action.
This article that I read 7 years ago still rings true.
Bernard Chazelle writes, "There is palpable excitement out there on the left. A pity there is no there there. America has lefties but no left."
I'm much more sympathetic to lesser evil voting than I used to be. In part because of a compelling case made by Julio Huato here and here. And because the Republican Party has gone completely off the rails. That said, it would be a real shame if Clinton is the nominee. She's highly objectionable.
But, as the Chazelle quote implies, lefties haven't laid the groundwork for someone like Sanders (or Kucinich before him) to become POTUS. Every 4 (or 8) years lefties (at least those who don't just vote Green) get excited about the most leftish Democrat in the race. However, it's clear that not nearly enough work has gone into establishing a climate that is ripe for such a candidate to be viable. You attend a rally, you post on a message board how great you think the candidate is, you get yourself so worked up that you actually think the (relatively) radical candidate can win...newsflash, the groundwork hasn't been laid. You can't just will the environment into being; you have to create it. And accept that it will likely take a long time--multiple generations.
This lack of a persistent effort to create an organized Left, combined with impatience (expecting monumental and instantaneous change without the hard work and necessary disruptions of the social order), means Dems must settle for the likes of Clinton. Sorry to be the messenger of sad tidings.
As Julio Huato wrote, "Meanwhile, Stan and everybody else need to do more basic organizing work. This is not exclusive of what Stan is proposing. I mean, not entirely exclusive. Ideally, to use the old terms, our strategy should capitalize on our propaganda (emphasis on the commonality of interests of working people, broadly defined) and our tactics should capitalize on our agitation (a campaign against the concrete miseries of the crisis, wars, etc.). At this point, clearly, the radical left does not have a unified and coherent strategy. But people start where they may.
I'll finish with a few words on the latter. Picking up on some of the ideas I threw out in my essay on the Democrats and listening to others who know better, I believe that the greatest promise lies, not in national struggles (where, IMO, one way or another, we'll be operating within the strictures imposed by the system), but in smaller scale local battles. Let's go local. Let's work seriously to take over PTAs, unions, municipal governments -- entities charged with managing resources for specific public purposes, even if those resources are meager and shrinking. Let's go after them. If we think we can change the system within our lifetimes, then this certainly will feel like small change. What I envision is taking over a town and turning it around. To the extent possible, converting that town into a small, democratically managed, proto-socialist island. Let's show the world and ourselves how the left can help people manage (and manage well) their public affairs at a local level. Let's go wherever the fruit hangs lowest. That is the kind of work that, sooner than we think, will ripen things at the national level. When things come to a head then, we will know that the time to switch away from the Democrats has arrived."
In the meantime, national politics is not going to be a vehicle for systemic change. I might vote in the 2016 presidential election. I might not. Regardless, I'm not going to expend much energy on it, that's for sure. And expecting Sanders to win is almost as ridiculous as thinking Trump will be the Republican nominee. Does that mean you're obligated to vote for the Dem nominee? No. But if you want better, guess what? You're going to have to work for it. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. Not just when the next election cycle rolls around.
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