The Left’s Best Chance to Win With Warren or Sanders Is a Solidarity Ticket

It doesn’t matter which is at the top of the ticket. These two need to come together to beat back the centrists.

Photo: Saul Loeb/Getty Images

With Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren solidly in the top tier of the Democratic presidential primary contenders, the left has its best opportunity in generations to actually win the presidency.

Policy ideas that were completely shut out of the national political conversation just a few years ago now anchor the policy platforms of not one, but two, major candidates. The left should be ecstatic and leveraging that momentum into a cohesive national movement. Instead, far too many on the left are risking it all by succumbing to the narcissism of small differences between Warren and Bernie.

However, there is a solution: the solidarity ticket.

The president controls the broad-brush focus of American politics and rarely the nuances of policy — like the length of a Medicare for All phase-in or the exact size of a wealth tax. And on those broad-brush agenda items — an economy that puts working folks first, a government that’s more transparent and accountable to the people, an America that is more generous and welcoming — Sanders and Warren are in lockstep.

Warren and Sanders should announce as soon as possible that they are forming a unity ticket to bring the policy chops and grassroots fervor the left will need to turn their collective vision into reality.

I know this sounds like a knock-off Aaron Sorkin script. And, yes, there is a chance that one of those candidates could win without joining forces.

But the polling is clear: Alone, Warren and Sanders are each significant underdogs at the moment. Biden — at about 28% nationally, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average — remains comfortably in the lead, even after absorbing months of press coverage ranging from “meh” to “yeesh.” That’s eight points ahead of Bernie and about 12 ahead of Warren.

It’s time for the left to start treating electoral politics more like movement politics.

Put Warren and Sanders support together, though? They’ve got a six-point lead. You see the same pattern in the early states, too. Combine Bernie and Warren’s support and they become the clear leader. (Of course, it’s not as simple as 1 + 1 = 2. Some of Warren’s supporters wouldn’t immediately move over to a solidarity ticket and vice versa. But that is even more reason to start now, so the bridge-building can begin in earnest before the left fractures during the actual primary contests.)

It’s time for the left to start treating electoral politics more like movement politics. In movement politics, titular leaders are important, but they are much less important than a grassroots army unified by its mission and values. Solidarity is the heart of any truly revolutionary left movement — from abolitionists to suffragists to labor to civil rights. Yes, those movements all had nominal leaders. But the vision was always the driver. No modern progressive social movement has succeeded on the back of a leader’s personal charisma alone.

Warren and Sanders would be wise to put their shared revolutionary agenda ahead of their individual political fortunes. By joining forces, they would center the needs of regular Americans who want universal healthcare, student debt cancellation, an actual livable climate for their children, and, frankly, sane, steady leadership.

The movement requires more than just Sanders and Warren on the stump, too. That’s why the solidarity ticket should also establish a solidarity cabinet — enlisting a broad cross section of left leaders to provide a vision of what a solidarity administration could look like:

Rep. Pramila Jayapal as the head of Health and Human Services (after all, she also “wrote the damn bill” on Medicare for All).

Philadelphia District Attorney and criminal justice reformer Larry Krasner as Attorney General.

Firebrand leader of the Association of Flight Attendants Sara Nelson as Labor Secretary.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib — the daughter of Palestinian immigrants — as Secretary of State.

Millennial Iraq War vet Rep. Ruben Gallego as Secretary of Defense.

Rep. Deb Haaland — one of the first Native American women elected to Congress and an early and vociferous supporter of the Green New Deal — as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

And as chief of staff, Stacey Abrams right in the heart of it all.

Now, imagine that crew barnstorming America, pushing a bold, unified, truly progressive left agenda. The massive change leftists seek is simply not possible without a broad and deep grassroots movement. It makes no sense to waste several more months on mindless sniping at the edges of two candidates who are deeply committed to the cause — and are, needless to say, as imperfect as anyone.

Of course, there remains the question of who would be president and who would be vice president. In this movement-driven scenario, that distinction will be less important than ever in modern politics. But if the Constitution requires one candidate to step slightly to the side (and it does), I think Bernie would see the value in supporting the nation’s first female president — thereby freeing him up to spend the entire presidential term organizing and movement-building across America in support of the left agenda. In the words of his own campaign motto, “Not me. Us.”

Solidarity will be vital to delivering on the left’s promises post-election. It’s critical they embrace that ethos before the election, too.