You’re looking strictly at big picture items that are buzzwords for people who don’t have much in life outside a vote (m4a, student loan forgiveness (only for those this’ll paying it off, not for people who paid it off, smokers rights). With regard to climate change, we have a lot to learn and a lot of this has been propaganda, like carbon neutralization (ex: planting $4m of tree saplings after deforesting eastern germany for an electric car factory; electric car batteries sourced with African child slave labor; the list goes on, but point is that we market “solutions” and pay out subsidies for the producers of tomorrow’s problems.
Sander’s strength is in focusing on a big picture and being as loud as possible. Buttigieg called him out on it last Wednesday pointing out that most of his own voters don’t understand or accept socialism. And in my opinion, they are merely trying to be part of something that accepts them in exchange for their vote.
Do we need to legalize another smoking product after decades of educating people against smoking’s harmful effects? No.
Are we prepared for public universities to be consolidated and streamlined down like healthcare was after Obamacare was installed? Because if you price fix college tuition or make it free, most institutions will be forced to go lean, cutting loose faculty, increasing student-teacher ratios to untenable levels. How are they going to do all that AND pay teachers more? Probably by firing more teachers.
I’m not saying that I don’t want these things to be affordable and high quality for all Americans, but that Bernie’s plan is a joke. None of the shit he talks about is happening under the 2 years he’d be alive in office before his eventual stroke. He doesn’t have the support system, he doesn’t have allies. It would simply be a Pyrrhic victory for the people, and a vainglorious victory for Sanders.
Wow, there's a lot to unpack in your post!
Your "no one likes him" Clinton talking point is wrong. Sanders is 3/3 in the primary, is ahead in the polls, and is the most liked senator in the country. His ground game is on point. He has the most supporters, donors and raises the most money. He also has the most passionate supporters. It's not even close in that regard. If the corporate centrists don't like him, GOOD! The Republican establishment hated Trump but he's still managed to get some things done. Sure, they were mostly bad, but he won the election and should be free to try and enact his agenda, such as it is.
The approval rating for Congress is pathetic. If Sanders has little support from members of Congress as you suggest, it's likely a positive attribute with voters since they apparently despise Congress as well. Don't worry though, they will get on board and beg for administration jobs 5 minutes after a Sanders win. The smart ones are already calculating ahead and are not coming out as "never Bernie" people out of self interest.
The "he can't get anything done" criticism is also wrong. Sanders, or anyone else, could legalize weed and cancel student debt on day one without congressional input. Those two things alone are enough for me to vote for him. After 8 years of Obama, including 2 years of complete Democratic congressional control, he got almost jack shit done for the people that naively supported his "hope and change" bullshit, myself included.
Positive change is never easy. Your outlook seems very pessimistic. It's a good job the civil rights movement didn't pre-emptively give up due to lack of political support and allies. I enjoy reading your insights on a whole host of topics but maybe your political views could use a re-examination. I'll freely admit I was wrong about cheerleading Obama and his band of merry Wall Street centrists. I also used to think Russian meddling gave us Trump. I conveniently ignored Obama's expansion of executive powers and droning people in far off lands because he seemed like a nice guy. Honestly though, the last few years have been like watching a series of Geraldos opening empty Al Capone vaults.
Would you vote for Sanders in the general if he's the nominee? While he may not beat Trump, I firmly believe Sanders has the best chance to unseat him. Trump will outright destroy most of these jokers. What do the other candidates hope to achieve by staying in the race and attacking Sanders? A conspiracy minded person might conceive they would actually prefer Trump, but the likely answer is they are positioning for a brokered convention or perhaps it's just good old fashioned self interest and party interest over the will of the voters.
