One thing to remember about Bernie Sanders is that he kept getting reelected as mayor of Burlington because people basically liked the results of his ideas when they got to see them in action. As a congressman and a senator, he hasn’t been able to impose his will or vision on the political process but the country has learned to accept many of the ideas he first introduced as the mayor of Burlington, and he’s won over doubters in the local business community and in the Democratic Party leadership who initially thought that his ideas were loony and dangerous.
That doesn’t mean that he’d be successful as a president. After all, much like Obama or even Clinton, he’d discover that you can’t do much if Congress is filled with skeptics and obstructionists. But he’s worth listening to. In the long run, he probably will see a lot of his ideas win out, one way or the other.
It’s impossible to post the word “socialism” in the comments of many blogs because the filter sees “cialis.” Which is kind of a metaphor, I guess. Anyway, I don’t know if Bernie can live down the dirty word, but maybe he’ll make it more acceptable.
for some reason, BMW ads are accompanying this post. At least, for me.
one problem with that slogan – don’t you remember what the next line was in that famous commercial?
“so I tried it — thought I was gonna die”.
All, good, but Bernie’s still a long shot at this point.
However, that’s not to say that he can’t make a contribution.
For example, Pres. Hitlery could appoint Bernie to be in charge of those FEMA re-education camps and Death Panels.
If Bernie doesn’t win America is just wrong. And broken, and I’m not talking to her any more.
How can anyone not see that?
Davis you crack me up
He’s not likely to win but his candidacy could shed light on the reality that government, done with care and competence, works. This country once knew that, working together, we could create a better society. Republicans have done everything in their power to discredit such notions. Sanders can remind us.
And then we vote for HRC and throw it all away.
That’s an “all or nothing” perspective and politics doesn’t work that way. Progress is made and lost over years. If people just say, “It’s not perfect so fuck it” we may as well not even bother to try because nothing happens overnight.
Death happens overnight and you can’t fix it later. This country has been dying for fifty years. TPP is cardiac arrest.
I’m far more optimistic than you. We’ve survived far worse than a bad treaty (assuming the result is in fact bad — we’ll see).
What if people don’t want it?
What if, for them, getting to watch other people’s lives be made worse is a perfectly acceptable substitute for their own lives being made better?
In a majority of House districts this appears to be the case.
Ditto the states, based on who their US senators are, controls the state houses, and who the governors are.
In the majority of House districts the voters voted for freedom. What they got was freedumb. Listen to a talk show. Even on a progressive station, Democratic callers will ask questions like “Why doesn’t Obama just do X?”, indicating they think the President is a dictator that can just pronounce laws. Examples, “Why doesn’t Obama just declare student debt gone? (Or housing debt) Why doesn’t Obama just spend the money on roads?” Sadly, a significant number of voters don’t even know that every state has two Senators. They are equally as ignorant of history, younger voters even thinking we fought Japan in the Vietnam War. Very large numbers believe Saddam Hussein launched 9-11. They believe what they hear over and over. That’s why the stupid 30 second spots work.
Educating people is a process. Democrats haven’t played that game very well. But times are changing. In 1970 one might have thought seat belts were a hopeless cause. When Congress mandated automakers to put warning bells in when people didn’t wear them, people bitched and moaned and found every way around it. In just months, Congress retracted the new regulation. It was thought that the only way to protect people was with passive restraints that wouldn’t inconvenience anyone or wrinkle their clothes. Some spoke of just leave seat belts out of new cars entirely. But progressives didn’t give up. An education campaign slowly changed our culture. And then laws changed to require seat belt use and people didn’t resist because the culture had been altered. Same with the campaign to end drinking and driving.
Education works but it takes patience and consistent effort.
It took — hell is taking — a century and a half to persuade people that colored folk are people.
How long will an equally thoroughgoing critique of capitalism take?
I don’t know how long but I do know that things can shift quickly one the shift begins. Meanwhile, we just have to keep working to get people educated and to get more and better Democrats elected.
<i.All, good, but Bernie’s still a long shot at this point.</i>
Have you been paying attention at all? Have you heard about Bernie’s campaign stops in Iowa and Minnesota at all? He’s causing Hillary, or her campaign flunkies, heartburn already.
If he surpasses Jessie Jackson’s 1984 haul of 9% of the delegates, I’ll eat my hat.
Bernie’s no dummy. He’s doing this as a last Hurrah. Because he feels someone has to try.
Thanks for this comment, Voice. Maybe it’s just as simple and as laudable as that: we used to call it what someone believes.
Do you really think Bernie is doing this for the hell of it? He’s in it to win it.
Re-read what I posted. Something got lost.
My sense is he’s trying to place certain issues at play. He could succeed since we’re talking about a Democratic audience. I look forward to seeing what issues he raises.
It’s been a long time since I looked at a politician where the more I looked the more I liked. The Politico article made me think of Walmart where they have things made under slave conditions in other counties then they take all the money out of the local community sending it to a family in Arkansas leaving the local community to support local Walmart employees for basic needs. The idea to minimize leakage from the local economy to achieve a multiplier effect is critical for our survival. We need Bernie’s leadership on a national scale.
Bernie’s issue is how to organize a geography that’s a little more expansive than Vermont.
Organizing that geography takes care of Congress. Not organizing it puts one in the position of a Clinton or Obama relative to Congress.
Are people ready for the 36-year ideological war to be over? That is what we are about to find out.
With a socialist. Can we really talk mixed economy and infrastructure again?
I doubt it. The Wurlitzer will crank up and every downtrodden worker will dream of someday being a billionaire and vote like he already is.
Deconstructing the manipulation that the Wurlitzer does is a critical means of destroying its power. Folks don’t perceive they are being manipulated with the saturation media bombing; they are just irritated and want it to be over. They don’t realize that the messages and doubts are in fact getting through and attacking them the moment they are in the voting booth and they sorta blank out on a name or what they stand for or some other detail or remember a feeling associated with the name.
When people understand they are being manipulated an how, they generally get angry at the real manipulator.
Bernie presents a unique challenge. Most of his policies have the strong support of Americans – most poll at over 60% favorable.
63% of Americans want to raise the minimum wage
68% of Americans say the rich don’t pay enough taxes
65% of Americans say corporations don’t pay enough taxes
72% Americans back government investment in infrastructure
In 2012 83% of Americans were opposed to outsourcing – (that must have upset someone because the polling companies stopped asking)
61% Americans back more funding for public schools
Americans said the environment is a priority over economic growth by a 50%-to-41% margin
60% of likely American voters favor stricter banking regulations
61% of Americans support marriage equality
77% of Americans support path to citizenship or legal status
67% of Americans are unhappy with income inequality
Yet to hear our media these are radical ideas. Perhaps that word does not mean what they think it means.
Percent of Americans is different from percent of voters in specific states. How do those issues line up by state and what do they indicate about Sanders’s strength or weakness right now starting out in those states before factoring in electorate persuadability to move specific issues to Sanders’s favor.
Geographic distribution of those issues is important, even down to the precinct level. It is economically impossible to poll to that level before an election itself, but that granularity of sentiment is what moves elections.
And all of those issues cut different ways in different precincts.
And then there are voter perceptions of competence and temperament to consider. And the extent to which national and local media set up prejudgements.
After all, much like Obama or even Clinton, he’d discover that you can’t do much if Congress is filled with skeptics and obstructionists.
Well, in the alternative wacko universe where he does somehow become President I suspect he’d do a lot more to keep his democratic congressional majority than those two did. We can be sure that in the 2009 scenario a President Sanders wouldn’t get one economic stimulus bill passed in his first month then ignore the economy – except for a meaningly “jobs summit” with CEOs in December of 2009 – and wait for the expected voter lashback in 2010.
He’d be a much better president than obama for sure
click here
Hello BooMan, thank you very much for the article on the subject of ” Socialism”. So I liked and I share on my Facebook profile and I tweet on my profile twitter as well, so that everyone can see it. Thanks.
visit our web site:
http://totallybeautyaddict.fr/lets-go-to-holidays-defi-du-lundi/