Sanders-Warren a Super Tuesday power play for Democrats  

Last night’s Democratic debate brought joy to the hearts of President Trump and Republicans — and inspired nightmares in the hearts of many Democrats, who urgently want to defeat Trump in November.

The aggressively personal and vicious attacks against former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), which combined a dose of fact with a ton of demagoguery, make Trump the big winner of the Democratic debate. The two candidates Trump has good reason to fear the most, Bloomberg and former Vice President Joe Biden, were not helped by the debate, while a candidate Trump would like to run against, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), emerged in an even stronger position than before the debate.

Bloomberg is a highly electable Democrat, who donated major money to Democratic candidates in 2018 and has promised to donate at least $1 billion in 2020, which I first proposed in The Hill. I am now absolutely convinced that Warren is no longer competing against Sanders to be leader of the progressive wing of the party, but to be the vice presidential nominee on a ticket led by Sanders. Warren did not even attempt to compete against Sanders, instead launching a vicious personal attack against Bloomberg.

The obvious home run move for Sanders would be to offer the vice presidency to Warren, either shortly before or shortly after the Super Tuesday primaries.  

If a Sanders-Warren ticket were announced before Super Tuesday, it would likely guarantee the ticket a major victory on Super Tuesday. More likely, if Sanders wins the most delegates on Super Tuesday, and then announces a Sander-Warren ticket shortly thereafter, they would have a staggering momentum that would reach a crescendo well before the convention convenes.  

The reason I have not endorsed any candidate yet is that it is not yet clear who is the most electable progressive choice. I consider all of the Democratic candidates progressive to some degree, and each is decisively preferable to the reelection of Trump.

Let’s be clear about one point, with some urgency. It would have been far better if, during the debate, every candidate had directed their harshest attacks against Trump rather than one another, and pledged to support the ultimate nominee with passion and conviction.

What was striking about the debate, which in my view was horrifying and abhorrent, was that none of the candidates raised alarm bells about the attacks against the rule of law and administration of justice by the scandalous and dangerous actions of the president and his attorney general.

Sanders is now the clear frontrunner, which might or might not change depending on upcoming primaries.

Sanders deserves a standing ovation for his lifetime of leadership for progressive causes and the progressive movement. The small-donor supporters of Sanders deserve a standing ovation for their devotion, passion and commitment to his cause. If Biden’s large donors had 10 percent of the conviction of the Sanders small-donors during the past year, Bloomberg might not have even run.

My disagreement with Sanders, however, is twofold.

The intense desire of Democrats to win the election is so strong that it makes no sense, and is self-destructive to the cause, for Sanders to repeatedly label himself a socialist, which will lose some votes for him as a nominee. Democrats cannot afford to lose any votes against Trump.

Similarly, it would be a death ray for Democrats in November to tell 180 million voters that they are not allowed to have their current insurance policies if they want them. This will wrongly and unnecessarily alienate huge number of voters who otherwise would strongly support a plan that would allow every American to sign up for Medicare, which would be a historic and transcendent victory for better health care for the nation.

Democrats of all persuasions should consider the pros and cons of a Sanders-Warren ticket as though the future of the nation depends on decisions made in the coming weeks. It does. 

Brent Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.