What Bernie Sanders' gun control plan reveals about the power of political parties

[merrily]

As you read the full story at the link, remember: While Dean had A ratings from the NRA, Sanders's ratings have been D- to F.

Opinion

What Bernie Sanders' gun control plan reveals about the power of political parties
Paul Waldman

October 7, 2015

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It's a problem he's moving quickly to address. Sanders has a mixed history on guns — voting for some gun control measures and against others (there's a comprehensive roundup of his record here). Most notably, he voted against the Brady Act in 1993, and in 2005 supported a bill that gave gun manufacturers immunity from lawsuits holding them liable for what people do with their products. But now he's about to put out a plan to address gun violence, which will lean heavily on measures that are supported by liberals and opposed by conservatives.

http://theweek.com/articles/581697/what-bernie-sanders-gun-control-plan-reveals-about-power-political-parties

So does this tell us that Bernie Sanders is a flip-flopping flip-flopper who voters can't trust, just like every other politician? No, it doesn't. What it tells us is that while parties may be less meaningful as institutions than they have been in decades (and perhaps ever), as an ideological force, parties wield tremendous power.

The story of Sanders and gun control is about the transition from state to national politics, and about how presidential primaries create and enforce consensus on everyone, even those who, like Sanders, start out on one end of the intra-party ideological spectrum. To a striking degree, the primary process forces every candidate to be pretty much like every other candidate in his or her party. And that isn't a bad thing.

That isn't to say presidential hopefuls can't disagree with the party's consensus at all, just that the differences have to be relatively small and confined to issues where there are multiple positions the average primary voter might find acceptable. For instance, Bernie Sanders can advocate free tuition for all public universities, while Hillary Clinton won't go quite that far. But the basic principle — that everyone should be able to go to college regardless of whether they can afford it — is one they share, even if Sanders is willing to endorse a more active government response to achieve that goal.

[MannyGoldstein]

1. A for Dean, D-/F for Sanders

That's a great thing to know, thanks!

[merrily]

2. Happy to be helpful. A lot about Dean surprised me.

I was not following politics at all until about 2004 and it took me another 4 years to find out about the DLC. All I knew during the 2004 primary was that I was voting for Kerry, so I did not know much about Dean before the scream until I did some research.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12779709 (Howard Dean: Before the Scream.).