Bernie Sanders' ideas are not radical, they are as American as apple pie

[AZ Progressive]

It's the Reagan Era politicians that are the radical ones that turned America into a corporatist nation.


Just look at these ideas of Sanders:

Free Higher Education: States used to subsidize 80% of the costs of higher education. California had free higher education, and tuition was relatively cheap in other top schools across the nation (were talking hundreds of dollars a year.)

A $1 trillion program to rebuild roads and bridges: The Interstate system costed about $425 billion in 2006 dollars, so this country's no stranger to massive infrastructure spending. The jobs created would have a windfall effect similar to the New Deal (which costed an estimated $500 billion.)

Break up the big banks: The Sherman Antitrust Act was passed in 1890. Teddy, Taft, and Wilson broke up numerous big corporations during the progressive era.

Higher taxes on the wealthy: The top tax rates during the FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations, enough said.

Single Payer healthcare / government run healthcare: Medicare, the VA system. Medicare was supposed to have extended to all Americans, which of course didn't end up happening.

[marym625]

1. I don't understand how so many Democrats

Seem to have forgotten our roots. That have been so sucked in by the decades since Nixon and don't remember what we stood for. The 80s and 90s filled with Democrats that decided we would go further with compromise. But it wasn't comprise. It was constant giving in with no give back. And it turned into Democrats with no backbone, then Democrats wanting a piece of the corporate pie.

We need Bernie Sanders. Desperately

[pampango]

3. While I agree with your analysis of the party since the 80's, polls seem to show that Democrats want

their politicians to embrace compromise in politics, while republicans largely reject that quality. Independents largely agree with Democrats on this.



Democratic voters, and liberal Democrats in particular, place value on candidates who will make compromises: 63% say this, compared with 31% who prioritize sticking to core values. Republican voters, and conservative Republicans in particular, are more likely to value candidates who stick to their core values (57% vs. 35%).

http://www.people-press.org/2015/04/02/campaign-2016-modest-interest-high-stakes/

[marym625]

4. I don't think that most Democrats would want compromise

If it means that millions of people will suffer because of it.

I believe in compromise. It should happen in some circumstances. But this has been much more than compromise. It's just giving in or worse, voting for the money

I appreciate the information. But I think if the question was asked regarding each bill, the answers would be different.

[pampango]

5. "I think if the question was asked regarding each bill, the answers would be different." I hope

you are right.

I can see that some republican politicians could be afraid of the uncompromising, tea-party wing of the GOP, particularly during primary season. Their right draws lines in the sand regularly and rarely considers compromise an acceptable strategy.

Democratic politicians might have a more nuanced picture of their base with the more liberal wing most cognizant of the value of compromise, in general - though not on certain bills, I agree. It would be informative to see on what issues and bills Democrats draw the line as to when their support of compromise in theory becomes too much and they support a principled stand against compromise.

[Wilms]

2. ^