Bernie Is the Pragmatic Pick for True Liberals

[n2doc]

Hillary Clinton’s realism is overrated.
BY PAUL BLEST
February 24, 2016

Since the Democratic debate in October, where Hillary Clinton labeled herself as a “progressive who gets things done,” her campaign surrogates—such as her husband—and liberal writers like Jonathan Chait and Ezra Klein have argued that Clinton’s pragmatism is preferable to the “idealistic” proposals made by Bernie Sanders. As Chait writes in his case against Sanders, the Vermont senator “offers the left-wing version of a hoary political fantasy: that a more pure candidate can rally the People into a righteous uprising that would unsettle the conventional laws of politics.” In short: Clinton will be able to move the needle a little bit on progressive issues, and a little bit is better than nothing, right?

In truth, neither candidate has much of a chance of getting their desired reforms passed through Congress, at least not for the next several years. And when it comes to the use of executive power, Sanders’s moves would be more likely to satisfy liberal Americans.

Consider healthcare reform. Clinton’s position is that with liberal reforms—such as lowering copays and out-of-pocket expenses, and adding a public option—will eventually get Obamacare to the place all progressives including Sanders want it: universal coverage. Sanders, on the other-hand, wants to scrap Obamacare in favor of a Medicare-for-all plan, theoretically getting to universal coverage much faster. Klein denounced this plan as “vague and unrealistic.”

The House of Representatives has repealed Obamacare over 50 times, and the last time, in January, the Senate sent it to President Obama’s desk for a veto. It wasn’t long ago that Republicans shut down the government over the law. Likewise, on the issue of Wall Street reform, Clinton has said that she wants to improve on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, rather than bring back Glass-Steagall, as Sanders proposes. But Republicans want to kill Dodd-Frank, a modest law that has been weakened since its passage. Tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans? Dead on arrival.

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https://newrepublic.com/article/130445/bernie-pragmatic-pick-true-liberals

[daleanime]

1. Oh, I have no doubt that she would 'get things done'.

It's just that it would be very few things and they would be things that I don't support us doing.