The Dems are looking for an ‘-ism ticket’, sexism, racism, etc.
Martin O’Malley is positioning himself as the liberal alternative to Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.
In doing so, the former Maryland governor is claiming the populist, anti-Wall Street rhetoric of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the favorite of the grassroots Left.
Warren’s refusal to run has left progressive Democrats without a credible left-wing challenger to Clinton, who is seen as too close to Wall Street and big business. Among the thin bench of potential Democratic 2016 candidates, O’Malley has moved in recent weeks to fill that void.
O’Malley took a hard left turn against Wall Street Friday in Iowa, the first caucus state of the the presidential nomination.
Speaking to the Scott County Democrats, O’Malley asserted that “we must not allow another Wall Street meltdown to bring down the hardworking families of our country.
“We have a responsibility to put that sort of repeat performance beyond the realm of the possible by reinstating Glass-Steagall and holding people accountable when they break the law,” O’Malley said.
Glass-Steagall is the law that for much of the 20th century placed a wall between commercial and investment banking. The law was repealed under President Bill Clinton, and Warren has championed its reinstatement.
Many liberals favor tougher measures to tighten regulation on big banks, and have criticized the Obama administration and Department of Justice for not prosecuting individual bank executives involved in fraudulent activity before the financial crisis.[…]
Amid last summer’s stream of unaccompanied children from Central America to the Texas border, O’Malley warned that deporting the children would be sending them “back to certain death.”
The White House objected to O’Malley’s comments, but he stood by them with the explanation that “we are Americans.”
In November, O’Malley came out forcefully against allowing the Keystone XL pipeline to be built, a subject on which Clinton had not taken a stance.
Then, in February, O’Malley penned a New York Times op-ed warning that the Obama administration’s decision to allow oil and gas drilling off the East Coast was a “big mistake.”