Bernie Sanders could still be the USs Jeremy Corbyn.
Bernie Sanders could still be the US's Jeremy Corbyn. chrisdorney / Shutterstock.com

After the New York primary, I received this email from a very good friend and Marxist philosopher:
My step-daughter and I voted for Bernie last night, really thinking he had a shot (in our county all the lawn signs were for Bernie—not a trace of those shameful Hillary-ites). How disappointed we were this morning! There will be no socialist Christmas in America this year, it looks like.
He knew what I knew: There was no presidential future for Sanders after New York. But why was this not the obvious state of things for Sanders?

The truth of the matter is the California primary was a disaster for the socialists and social democrats in the Democratic Party. It was also a disaster that did not need to happen. After losing NY, Sanders should done a little political calculation, seen what's really what, and walked from the table with his winnings intact and a truly shaken opponent. The Clinton after California will certainly have less fear of Sanders and the important demands he represents.



And this is where the comparison with Ralph Nader makes sense. It is not that he is pulling down the Dems, making the party look dysfunctional, or that he might make Clinton lose. No, it is simply this: He appears to lack any political sophistication or sense of strategy. Worse still, many of his supporters really do believe that strategizing (reading and responding to a situation with an idea of future gains or losses) is selling out. For them, only the Messianic mode will do, only sacrifice counts. This is the dogged territory of Nader.

Lastly, if you think the media has been unfair to Sanders, you should see what Jeremy Corbyn (his UK equivalent) has to face in his country. Even the BBC, a state institution, rabidly opposes Corbyn (he is too radical) and did everything it could to make the public believe that the last local elections were a disaster for him and his radical agenda. But quite the opposite was true. Corbyn's took back London and stopped the bleeding which the Blairites started. Right now, we need a Sanders who is seen as a Corbyn and not painted as a Nader.