After Super Tuesday 3 it has become all but clear that Clinton will secure the Democratic presidential nomination. Diehard Sanders supporters are still making all sorts of delegate calculations based on statistical variations in order to demonstrate Sanders's remaining viability, but those wild variations mean nothing if people don't turn out and vote in the Democratic caucuses like many of us had hoped they would.
I am a Sanders supporter who is now pivoting to Clinton. But I do so with many caveats -- too many to delineate here -- and with one very essential recommendation that I believe could cost Clinton the presidency if she fails to heed it. Of course, I'm not the only one to make this recommendation, but I believe it to be so crucial that it has to be drilled into the Clinton campaign's psyche and very fabric if it plans to not only win the office but also to subsequently appease and ingratiate the diehard Sanders supporters, extreme progressives, Independents, and the generally inured and disenfranchised liberals.
Quite simply, Clinton -- arguably the personification of establishment U.S. politics -- MUST tap a populist leader as her running mate on the ticket.
This populist, or perceived populist, can be of any gender, ethnicity, age, etc., but he or she cannot safely fall into the category of establishment politics. Many have speculated that the veep pick could be Housing and Urban Development Secretary Juilan Castro, but he is, among other things, including far from adequately groomed, too representative of the next-generation establishment. Others have speculated that it might be Senator Cory Booker, who would be a much better choice, though not foolproof. Foolproof would be what some deem the laughably unrealistic tapping of Sanders himself or of someone as outspokenly pro-middle class as Senator Elizabeth Warren.
But in a climate in which Donald Trump, unbelievably, and for reasons that evade so many of us, including myself (who grew up in a white, working class household), surges among the populace; and in which Sanders has compelled millions of individuals to chip in to his non-PAC-backed revolution of a campaign, foolproof is what Clinton must strive for.
A populist vice president would by no means be a panacea, but it would send a strong message that the Clinton campaign and its imminent administration are taking seriously the desperation, frustration, anger, and sense of hopelessness that so many people -- from the working class to immigrants to Millennials -- feel today. Otherwise, and perhaps regardless, expect movements like Occupy and Black Lives Matter to groundswell. But more importantly, and far more frighteningly, expect the white rage, xenophobic, and the nihilistic anti-government factions to grow as well. And there's no telling what harm they could do under any presidency.