The Slow Bern
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
by
Common Dreams
Slow Bern: The Sanders Candidacy In Perspective
by Chris Siebert
It’s true folks, Hillary Clinton has caught up with Bernie Sanders, and they are now tied in delegates. This is becoming a real race!
The fact that Sen. Sanders is running such a successful campaign is quite historic in the context of our recent political history. It’s wonderful that so many people are excited by Bernie, especially young people.
He is shaking up the campaign and the democratic party, which really needs some shaking.
Bernie has inspired millions of Americans because he is a hard-working public servant with a long history of honesty and consistency on the big issues. His refusal to accept Super PAC money has gone a long way towards convincing people that he's not bought and sold. His integrity and record, including his record on veteran’s rights, give him a broad appeal that may make him the most electable candidate, because he’s getting a lot of support from independents, and even some republican voters.
Bernie electable? You may laugh. But for those who don’t think that America will elect a Jewish socialist hippie carpenter, let’s not forget that tens of millions of Americans worship the archetypal Jewish socialist hippie carpenter every Sunday (and one with very long hair).
That being said, I hope that we can agree that it’s not the person that we are voting for that is the most important thing, it is their program, a set of policies that will improve the lives of our fellow citizens and make us a better neighbor in the world.
Bernie is setting forth a program that is by far the most sensible set of proposals for our nation:
*Civil rights for all Americans: Racial justice, women’s rights, LGBT rights, disability rights
*Reform of our justice system & prison system, including ending private prisons
*A fair immigration and humane policy
*Single payer health care
*Free public colleges and universities
*A living wage for all Americans
*Public investment in infrastructure and energy to create decent paying jobs
*Expanding social security by lifting the cap on payroll taxes
*Financial regulation and Wall Street reform
*Progressive taxation to reduce income inequality
*Campaign finance reform to strengthen democracy
*A rational foreign policy
*Environmental policies to combat climate change
Bernie is a self-described democratic socialist, inspired by the wealthy nations of northern Europe, including Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Germany, France and the Netherlands. It’s important to realize that, in the context of our history, he is not a radical. When you look at his program, as Robert Kuttner has pointed out, he is essentially a New Deal democrat like FDR and Harry Truman (remember, Harry Truman tried to pass single-payer health care in 1948, almost 70 years ago).
New Deal democrats became rare in the 90s.
Pres. Bill Clinton, under pressure from the racist Reagan revolution, ended up passing right-wing policies that Reagan could only dream of, including welfare reform, the crime bill, deregulation (esp. the repeal of Glass-Steagall) and NAFTA.
In fact, the progressive agenda has stalled and been set back for well over 30 years, ever since Reagan became president. So there is a lot of work to be done, and Bernie is showing the country what is possible.
And it’s not pie in the sky. The sorts of policies that Bernie is proposing work in every other wealthy nation in the industrial democratic world: Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. None of these nations is a perfect utopia. They all have their problems. But we can learn from them, because they have solved many of the problems that we face. Perhaps they can learn from us as well.
...snip...
Read the rest~
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/02/24/slow-bern-sanders-candidacy-perspective
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