Next Up After Bernie

Bernie Sanders really hit the sweet spot for me as a voter.  He focused on what is important and played along enough with the establishment to get close enough to power to spotlight important issues.  He didn't get sidetracked by name calling or petty politics.

Having said that, what could Bernie's successor as leader of the left do differently to actually win the presidency or gain some other position of power?  I've been trying to think of some possibilities off the top of my head, but am not having good luck.  The first thing that occured to me was that Bernie should have tried to forget an alliance with some good billionaires.  But that could have also shown that he was vulnerable to being co-opted.  The next thing that occurred to me was that he could have had a Sister Souljah moment, but that could have been an unneeded concession to bigotry.  Perhaps he could have turned against one of the Democrats' sacred cows such as Russiagate or support for illegal immigrants.  But he may never have gotten as much publicity as he did if he had attacked the intelligence community (FBI and CIA) or one of the Democrats main constituent groups.  Perhaps he should have attacked Biden and the other mainstream Dems more forcefully.  Biden, for example, has quite a history of lying and changing his tune to fit whatever is politically expedient.  That actually might have worked, but it might also have been counterproductive in the long run by inflaming passions on all sides.

Another possibility is that we just need more of the same from a Bernie successor.  Bernie did succeed in bring single payer universal health care to the fore.  Even though Bernie will not win the presidency, arguments against his signature plan, that we can't afford it, look pretty ridiculous right now.  Perhaps Bernie's successor will find some power brokers big enough to realize that the health care financing system is broken and agree that we should fix it.  It's a fine line to build a coalition without compromising one's values, but that's the nature of politics.