by a friend, Maybe Your Second Choice Should Be Your First;Here’s Why You Should Consider This.
'Hello fellow Democrats. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m beginning to worry that many of us are presently marching down diverging roads to defeat. That’s the bad news. The good news is that we all still have time to follow the road most of us have not yet taken. That’s the road to party unity and potential victory next November.
Some of us now on Bernie Boulevard have vowed that we will never switch to the Hillary Highway. Meanwhile, I’m pretty sure some of us now on the Hillary Highway would balk at turning onto the Bernie Boulevard. In other words, I get the feeling that it’s going to be very difficult to unify the party around either of these two candidates.
Oh sure, a Clinton/Sanders or Sanders/Clinton “unity” ticket is theoretically possible…. But, does anyone seriously think such a ticket would actually unify the party? Would either of these get the vow-takers, etc. back into the fold? And, most importantly, does anyone really believe either of those tickets would win next November?
I don’t, and neither should you.
But wait, you’re probably thinking, aren’t all the potential Republican tickets simply ridiculous? Won’t Hillary or Bernie be able to defeat any Republican ticket without the vow-takers, etc?
Don’t bet on it.
“The Democrats’ hopes of holding the White House rest on…remobilizing the Obama coalition of millennials, single women, and nonwhite voters” — the so-called “rising American electorate” or RAE. Unfortunately, that coalition is presently less motivated than Republicans, conservatives and white non-college men and women. This is in spite of all the enthusiastic support Bernie has generated on-line and in spite of the millions Hillary’s campaign has already spent. And it’s in spite of so many good Democrats now marching down Hillary Highway and Bernie Boulevard.
So, what did Obama have going in 2007/8 to motivate the rising American electorate that Hillary and Bernie don’t have now? Why are they falling short?
He was the new guy. He had youth. And in each of those ways, he was something like nearly all the Democrats we’ve elected President for the past 55 years. Obama, Clinton, Carter and JFK were also all youthful new long-shots a year before they were elected.
Which brings me to the road not yet taken by so many Democrats this election. The new guy road. Perhaps the best road to the hearts and minds of the new American electorate. The road some say is to the future of the Democratic Party. And perhaps the only road to party unity next year….
Martin O'Malley could be the candidate the whole party would support. There are indications that he’s becoming the second choice of many Democrats. He’s also becoming the first choice of increasing numbers of Democrats who’ve given him serious consideration. And he’s a Main Street Democrat, willing and able to tackle the toughest challenges.
So, please think about it, Democrats. The future of our country is at stake. If the alternative candidates being supported so far are any indication, the people are looking for new leadership. And our party needs to be unified to win next year. The good news is that we can accomplish both those goals. But first, more of us need to exit the Hillary Highway and depart the Bernie Boulevard, and head on over to Martin O’Malley’s Main Street. If we go there without prejudice, we just might like what we see and learn. And perhaps we’ll discover the candidate who has the best chance of keeping a Democrat in the White House for the next eight years.'
https://medium.com/@Nick_Kelly/maybe-your-second-choice-should-be-your-first-here-s-why-you-should-consider-this-a136da14bcd8#.mz515ctwk
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