Former presidential candidate and consumer advocate Ralph Nader believes progressives can do better than former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.
While Clinton has not yet stated any plans to run for the presidential nomination ahead of 2016, Nader sat down with MSNBC's Chuck Todd on Monday to weigh in on the progressive movement and its hopes of finding a candidate that adequately represents their views in the next presidential election.
“The problem with progressives in the Democratic Party is -- they’re hanging on," he said. "There is [Sen.] Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) -- but they’re fairly marginalized. They’re not in the center because they don’t threaten to break. The right wing does threaten to break sometimes."
Nader went on to say that many progressive figures in electoral politics had emerged as "lone rangers" who shied away from many groups that represented the movement. He also said that the Democratic Party had neglected to stress the "corporate power issue," which he took as a clear sign that progressives "must challenge from the left" in 2016.
“Hillary Clinton, who started out as a progressive out of Yale Law School and Wellesley, she’s become almost the poster child for the military-industrial complex. She hugs Kissinger. She hobnobs with Bob Rubin and the Wall Street crowd,” Nader said. "It's almost a caricature."
But Nader admitted that while he saw some strong progressive figures who could challenge Clinton, many had expressed little interest in doing so.
“They are very very skittish about challenging the dominant players in their party,” he said.
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