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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBernie Sanders' campaign agenda
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Bernie Sanders’ campaign agenda
- Medicare4All
- Green New Deal/climate
- $15 min wage
- Criminal justice reform
- Free college
- Break up biggest banks
- Gender pay equity
- Paid leave
- ⬇ Drug prices
- Expand Social Security
- Save unions
- DREAM Act
As long as he is running as a Democrat and these are his priorities then I'm glad he is running. At the very least if these bullet points are adopted by whoever wins for our side I'll say his contribution is welcome.
He isn't my first choice but his platform is. Before voting for Clinton he was my first choice. Let him keep us turned left. I've had enough right Bullshit to last me a lifetime.
Have at me.
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niyad
(132,440 posts)negotiable, does he not?).
TCJ70
(4,387 posts)You're just reading someone else' summation of the campaign...not some bullet point list from Sanders. I don't have an issues page to link to since I don't think that's up yet. But you can read the whole text of the statement here towards the bottom of the article:
https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/politics/elections/2019/02/19/bernie-sanders-2020-presidential-campaign-announcement-democratic-party/2911315002/
niyad
(132,440 posts)TCJ70
(4,387 posts)We are not going to allow the extreme right-wing to defund Planned Parenthood, we are going to expand it. Planned Parenthood provides vital healthcare services for millions of women, who rely on its clinics every year for affordable, quality health care services including cancer prevention, STI and HIV testing and general primary health care services. The current attempt to malign Planned Parenthood is part of a long-term smear campaign by people who want to deny women in this country the right to control their own bodies.
We are not going back to the days when women did not have full access to birth control. Incredibly, almost all of the Republicans in the Senate are in favor of giving any employer who provides health insurance, or any insurance company, the ability to deny coverage for contraception or any other kind of procedure if the employer had a “moral” objection to it. That is unacceptable.
Link to his issues page from the 2016 campaign:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160428045034/https://berniesanders.com/issues/fighting-for-womens-rights/
NOTE: THIS IS NOT REFIGHTING THE 2016 PRIMARY. I WAS ASKED A QUESTION AND I ANSWERED IT.
MrsCoffee
(5,825 posts)Following Mr. Sanders’s campaign event for Mr. Mello, Ilyse Hogue, the head of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said in a statement that the event was “not only disappointing, it is politically stupid.”
TCJ70
(4,387 posts)That event happened AFTER the primary and there was no other Dem to support at that point. I thought it was OK to support and run candidates who "fit the district"?
MrsCoffee
(5,825 posts)Caught off-guard, Perez reversed himself, saying "every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman's right to make her own choices," and called on Democrats to speak with "one voice."
I vehemently disagree with Sanders. I don't believe we should embrace anti-choice candidates at all.
TCJ70
(4,387 posts)I guess you're glad Mello didn't win the election, then...
MrsCoffee
(5,825 posts)How much clearer can I be?
sellitman
(11,745 posts)My bullet points aren't anything but a basic guideline. He has other ideas and plateforms. Most I agree with and some I disagree with. I try to look at his big picture. I like most of it.
TCJ70
(4,387 posts)...just wanted to be sure people knew where they could read the whole thing that most likely addresses their concerns.
niyad
(132,440 posts). . . . .
Sanders proved he’s no champion of women when earlier this year he rejected abortion rights as a litmus test for Democratic candidates. This reasoning runs counter to Sanders’s style: abortion access is an opportunity to challenge progressives in the Democratic party to re-evaluate whether they are asking the right questions in the first place. Sanders contends in an interview with NPR, "If we are going to protect a woman's right to choose, at the end of the day we're going to need Democratic control over the House and the Senate, and state governments all over this nation," he said. "And we have got to appreciate where people come from, and do our best to fight for the pro-choice agenda. But I think you just can't exclude people who disagree with us on one issue."
In the back and forth over whether any man should be speaking at the convention, whether Sanders’s high profile would steal attention from Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) or other speakers, and the double-guessing of the organizers’ judgment, the real danger of Sanders’s position on letting Democratic candidates ditch abortion was lost.
. . .
https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/358608-bernie-sanders-doesnt-fight-for-womens-reproductive-justice
Will We Abandon Women’s Rights in the Name of Progressive Politics?
By Rebecca Traister
Bernie Sanders and Tom Perez.
The most disturbing thing to emerge from this week’s badly bungled Democratic “Unity Tour” staged by Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and new DNC head Tom Perez was the fact that the only thing on which the two men seemed to easily agree was that reproductive rights are not necessarily fundamental to progressive politics. This led to uproar and outrage among some precincts of the left, and eventually to mea culpas and “clarifications” from Sanders and Perez. But it is worth closely examining this fight over the importance of reproductive rights in the party because it is an argument that the Democrats seem to rehash over and over and over again.
To recap: On Wednesday, Sanders gave an interview in which he said that he “didn’t know” if Jon Ossoff, the Democrat who the day before had earned more than 48 percent of the primary vote in a longtime Republican House district in Georgia, was a progressive. It was an odd move for a powerful left-wing politician on a tour to rejuvenate Democratic politics to fire a shot of ambivalence at a Democratic candidate in any tight race, but it felt especially egregious given that Ossoff was now facing Karen Handel, a virulently anti-choice Republican who was forced to leave the Susan G. Komen Foundation in 2012 after trying to sever the organization’s ties with Planned Parenthood, and who actively supported voter-suppression efforts as Georgia’s secretary of State.
Sanders’s definition of what constitutes a progressive became even murkier when he suggested that the election of Heath Mello, who’s running for mayor of Omaha, Nebraska — and who as a state senator sponsored a 20-week abortion ban and mandatory ultrasounds for women seeking abortions — would represent a “shot across the board, that in a state like Nebraska a progressive Democrat can win.” Not to be outdone, Perez amplified the message that reproductive rights are negotiable for the Democratic Party. “If you demand fealty on every single issue,” Perez said, “then it’s a challenge. The Democratic Party platform acknowledges that we’re pro-choice, but there are communities, like some in Kansas, where people have a different position.” Well, sure. There are also communities in Kansas where voters have different positions from Democrats on immigration reform, labor protections, climate change, voting rights, and health care, and it would be vexing — and not at all progressive — for post-2016 Democrats to alter their stances on any of those issues.
The simple fact is that anti-abortion politicians support laws that shame, pressure, and punish women. Why would Sanders roll out the red carpet for candidates who refuse to respect women's autonomy and dignity? Does he really believe that ‘you can't just exclude people who disagree with us on one issue'? Sanders would never endorse a candidate who supported an end to collective bargaining laws, or opposed health care expansion or was a climate change denier — so why is it acceptable to support a candidate who rejects a woman’s right to decide if and when she’ll have children? Why does he only apply the “big tent” criteria to abortion? Throwing abortion access under the bus in support of the unproven claim that anti-abortion Democrats can help the party in red states can’t just be reduced to political expediency. There's a bigger principle involved: meaningful accountability to a constituency that makes up the core of the Democratic Party - women of color and black women in particular.
. . . . .
https://www.thecut.com/2017/04/bernie-sanders-and-tom-perez-must-not-abandon-womens-rights.html
Bernie Sanders Defends Campaigning For Anti-Abortion Rights Democrat
Sen. Bernie Sanders is campaigning for Omaha, Neb., mayoral candidate Heath Mello Thursday night, and he's not apologizing for it. "Absolutely, and I want him to win," Sanders, I-Vt., told NPR Thursday, after a rally in Grand Prairie, Texas.
The Thursday event with Mello, a Nebraska state senator who's running as a Democrat in the mayoral race, is one of several rallies Sanders is holding across the country this week. It's part of a Democratic National Committee-organized unity tour with DNC Chair Tom Perez.
Georgia Special Election Headed To Runoff As Republicans Avoid Nightmare Scenario
Politics
The Omaha event wasn't that notable – just one of several red state visits on the DNC itinerary — until Thursday morning. That's when Ilyse Hogue, the president of abortion rights advocate NARAL Pro-Choice America, issued a statement blasting Sanders and Perez for spending time and resources campaigning alongside a Democrat who opposes abortion rights.
"The actions today by the DNC to embrace and support a candidate for office who will strip women – one of the most critical constituencies for the party – of our basic rights and freedom is not only disappointing, it is politically stupid," Hogue said. "Today's action makes this so-called 'fight back tour' look more like a throw-back tour for women and our rights." Mello has co-sponsored several bills in Nebraska's unicameral legislature that would restrict abortion rights, including a 2009 measure requiring doctors to inform women seeking abortions about the availability of an ultrasound.
. . . . .
https://www.npr.org/2017/04/20/524962482/sanders-defends-campaigning-for-anti-abortion-rights-democrat
TCJ70
(4,387 posts)If so, then that would require a closer look. If not, then should he have not supported the Democrat?
niyad
(132,440 posts)it is depressing to watch progressives tapdancing around women's rights.
TCJ70
(4,387 posts)Omaha Primary: April 4
General Election: May 9
Your first article regarding Bernie and Perez is dated April 20. The second article is also dated April 20. AFTER the primary.
So my question still stands: Given that there wasn't another Democrat to support at that point, would it have been your preference that he NOT support the Democrat? Follow-up question: What do you suppose the reaction around here would have been if he had come out against Mello after he won the primary given that there was no other choice at that point?
Also, I thought it was OK for us to run candidates that "fit the district". Seems like since he won the Dem primary he fits the district.
niyad
(132,440 posts)TCJ70
(4,387 posts)...where'd you leave those goalposts? I can't even see them anymore. We started with "I don't see anything about women's reproductive rights there" and now we're going over the Omaha mayoral candidates positions...
Thanks for NOT answering the questions by the way...
niyad
(132,440 posts)TCJ70
(4,387 posts)"If we are going to protect a woman's right to choose, at the end of the day we're going to need Democratic control over the House and the Senate, and state governments all over this nation," he said.
It's quite clear HE doesn't hold anti-choice views. This is so crazy to me.
Still no answers to the questions I see: Should he have NOT supported the Democrat?
DownriverDem
(7,014 posts)Bernie's agenda is to make sure trump wins.
safeinOhio
(37,651 posts)is run as an Independent to do that.
PTWB
(4,131 posts)And we have a bigger problem as a party if that happens. If Bernie runs as an independent through the general, then yes he is guaranteeing a Trump win. But if he drops out after he loses the primary, and endorses the Democratic nominee, as he did in 2016, he’s doing absolutely nothing wrong.
My problem with Bernie is that I don’t trust him to stay a Democrat if he wins the nomination and / or presidency.
PatrynXX
(5,668 posts)Hillary actually said that abortion rights would be on the table O_O now since I haven't been here in literally 2 yrs .... Bernie is with me period and thats all that'll matter. Because of threats made in PM here I left the party 
Couldn't stand the stress. And keep this up and yeah remind me why I didn't come back. Why people have to keep dividing I have no idea. Even with the Conservatives , the moderates don't like Trump .. Bernie would peal that off. I don't think he'd be big on getting more things done on abortion but hey Trump was Pro Choice until 2016. (i'd say 2015 but he was everything and for gays and lesbians too) So who they are and aren't for is driven by the supporters. .. Bernie was just the mouth piece. If his entrance in the race drives Democrats left of center instead of right of center GOOD. Right now , well Cory Book iffy he's more middle. But alot of them are rather right of center on the + graph oh I need that link again Political compass was it. zzzz But hey it took Bernie to bring me back here after 2 years of taking a break which I really needed. Yeah moment I heard he was in $3 down within an hour of hearing.. I don't really have the money but $3 isn't gonna hurt
sweetloukillbot
(12,744 posts)Oh yeah, Tulsi Gabbard is.
niyad
(132,440 posts). . . . .
Sanders proved he’s no champion of women when earlier this year he rejected abortion rights as a litmus test for Democratic candidates. This reasoning runs counter to Sanders’s style: abortion access is an opportunity to challenge progressives in the Democratic party to re-evaluate whether they are asking the right questions in the first place. Sanders contends in an interview with NPR, "If we are going to protect a woman's right to choose, at the end of the day we're going to need Democratic control over the House and the Senate, and state governments all over this nation," he said. "And we have got to appreciate where people come from, and do our best to fight for the pro-choice agenda. But I think you just can't exclude people who disagree with us on one issue."
In the back and forth over whether any man should be speaking at the convention, whether Sanders’s high profile would steal attention from Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) or other speakers, and the double-guessing of the organizers’ judgment, the real danger of Sanders’s position on letting Democratic candidates ditch abortion was lost.
. . .
https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/358608-bernie-sanders-doesnt-fight-for-womens-reproductive-justice
Will We Abandon Women’s Rights in the Name of Progressive Politics?
By Rebecca Traister
Bernie Sanders and Tom Perez.
The most disturbing thing to emerge from this week’s badly bungled Democratic “Unity Tour” staged by Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and new DNC head Tom Perez was the fact that the only thing on which the two men seemed to easily agree was that reproductive rights are not necessarily fundamental to progressive politics. This led to uproar and outrage among some precincts of the left, and eventually to mea culpas and “clarifications” from Sanders and Perez. But it is worth closely examining this fight over the importance of reproductive rights in the party because it is an argument that the Democrats seem to rehash over and over and over again.
To recap: On Wednesday, Sanders gave an interview in which he said that he “didn’t know” if Jon Ossoff, the Democrat who the day before had earned more than 48 percent of the primary vote in a longtime Republican House district in Georgia, was a progressive. It was an odd move for a powerful left-wing politician on a tour to rejuvenate Democratic politics to fire a shot of ambivalence at a Democratic candidate in any tight race, but it felt especially egregious given that Ossoff was now facing Karen Handel, a virulently anti-choice Republican who was forced to leave the Susan G. Komen Foundation in 2012 after trying to sever the organization’s ties with Planned Parenthood, and who actively supported voter-suppression efforts as Georgia’s secretary of State.
Sanders’s definition of what constitutes a progressive became even murkier when he suggested that the election of Heath Mello, who’s running for mayor of Omaha, Nebraska — and who as a state senator sponsored a 20-week abortion ban and mandatory ultrasounds for women seeking abortions — would represent a “shot across the board, that in a state like Nebraska a progressive Democrat can win.” Not to be outdone, Perez amplified the message that reproductive rights are negotiable for the Democratic Party. “If you demand fealty on every single issue,” Perez said, “then it’s a challenge. The Democratic Party platform acknowledges that we’re pro-choice, but there are communities, like some in Kansas, where people have a different position.” Well, sure. There are also communities in Kansas where voters have different positions from Democrats on immigration reform, labor protections, climate change, voting rights, and health care, and it would be vexing — and not at all progressive — for post-2016 Democrats to alter their stances on any of those issues.
The simple fact is that anti-abortion politicians support laws that shame, pressure, and punish women. Why would Sanders roll out the red carpet for candidates who refuse to respect women's autonomy and dignity? Does he really believe that ‘you can't just exclude people who disagree with us on one issue'? Sanders would never endorse a candidate who supported an end to collective bargaining laws, or opposed health care expansion or was a climate change denier — so why is it acceptable to support a candidate who rejects a woman’s right to decide if and when she’ll have children? Why does he only apply the “big tent” criteria to abortion? Throwing abortion access under the bus in support of the unproven claim that anti-abortion Democrats can help the party in red states can’t just be reduced to political expediency. There's a bigger principle involved: meaningful accountability to a constituency that makes up the core of the Democratic Party - women of color and black women in particular.
. . . . .
https://www.thecut.com/2017/04/bernie-sanders-and-tom-perez-must-not-abandon-womens-rights.html
Bernie Sanders Defends Campaigning For Anti-Abortion Rights Democrat
Sen. Bernie Sanders is campaigning for Omaha, Neb., mayoral candidate Heath Mello Thursday night, and he's not apologizing for it. "Absolutely, and I want him to win," Sanders, I-Vt., told NPR Thursday, after a rally in Grand Prairie, Texas.
The Thursday event with Mello, a Nebraska state senator who's running as a Democrat in the mayoral race, is one of several rallies Sanders is holding across the country this week. It's part of a Democratic National Committee-organized unity tour with DNC Chair Tom Perez.
Georgia Special Election Headed To Runoff As Republicans Avoid Nightmare Scenario
Politics
The Omaha event wasn't that notable – just one of several red state visits on the DNC itinerary — until Thursday morning. That's when Ilyse Hogue, the president of abortion rights advocate NARAL Pro-Choice America, issued a statement blasting Sanders and Perez for spending time and resources campaigning alongside a Democrat who opposes abortion rights.
"The actions today by the DNC to embrace and support a candidate for office who will strip women – one of the most critical constituencies for the party – of our basic rights and freedom is not only disappointing, it is politically stupid," Hogue said. "Today's action makes this so-called 'fight back tour' look more like a throw-back tour for women and our rights." Mello has co-sponsored several bills in Nebraska's unicameral legislature that would restrict abortion rights, including a 2009 measure requiring doctors to inform women seeking abortions about the availability of an ultrasound.
. . . . .
https://www.npr.org/2017/04/20/524962482/sanders-defends-campaigning-for-anti-abortion-rights-democrat
crazytown
(7,277 posts)The messenger wanting.
WeekiWater
(3,259 posts)This is how you make the case for him. I'm not going to "have at you". Well done.
sellitman
(11,745 posts)The anti-Sander vitriol on this site is amazing. I thought it needed some push back. I'm leaning heavily towards Kamala but I welcome his energy and I firmly believe he is a good man.
WeekiWater
(3,259 posts)But many of the posts initiated lend themselves to such a response.
Your op on the other hand lends itself as a reminder of all we support. I read all of the position points you mention and they make me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. 
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)"The anti-Sander vitriol on this site is amazing...."
So it tends to balance out.
PatrynXX
(5,668 posts)It's that bad. I know what I'm gonna get coming in here and it won't take me much to remember why this hatism sucks. and he's Jewish... do'h. My aunt's Jewish, my uncle isn't (dads brother) which makes my male cousin not so much and my female cousin on that side and her daughter Jewish. Not by religion but as heritage etc...
That and why does all this need to be so bloody early. It's february. my Jury duty delay from Nov 6 hasn't happened yet (march) this early? good grief. Iowa is 24/7 politics but nationally yall need some good humor.
Greatest irony I've had of late is a big pro Trump guy like my dad (yuck) well Trump punishes foreign companies. But dad nope. Got an LG washer made in Vietnam X_X and once the Jeep got nailed in a 300 foot long jump (stuck accelerator or something. and lost the breaks.. no Chrysler period (um Jeep not the same thing. Fiat not the same thing either. Rather liked the PT Cruiser and saw 2 1/2 of them out today (I say half because I saw my first (it's 20 degrees out!!) PT Cruiser convertible 2 door) But no no American made cars. Okay so I looked those up and ran into a concrete wall. Dad loves Hyundai Sonata's. Great South Korean made cars (made in Montgomery Alabama since 2005) WTF X_X He has a 2008 and 2016 brother has a 2014. Right now we are looking at a used made in Mexico <----- Nissan. I'll be the only one in the family with a foreign car 3 ways. Japanese origin, Owned in France made south of that wall he wants. Okay after I figured out where Sonata's in this country are made , nothing made sense. And yes Ford cars by and large are made in South Korea and sold here O_X bit backwards aren't we smh I did say dad was Pro Trump. so okay LG made in Vietnam is pro American and a Nissan owned in France made in Mexico is also American right. sure and my a** is made of jello 
(wait maybe it is )
DownriverDem
(7,014 posts)Bernie is not a member of the Democratic Party.
WeekiWater
(3,259 posts)I still think the op is how one makes the case for him at a place like DU.
LiberalLovinLug
(14,689 posts)Does it make them more important if an official full time Democrat says them?
mwooldri
(10,818 posts)And quacks like a duck...is it a duck?
pangaia
(24,324 posts)First time I ever heard it, that's for sure..
LongtimeAZDem
(4,516 posts)
ZeroSomeBrains
(638 posts)That is a huge deal for those in poor communities who get caught up in the criminal justice system.
msongs
(73,754 posts)
guillaumeb
(42,649 posts)is that if he does not prioritize reproductive issues and racial justice issues he will not do as well as he did in 2016.
He has had 2 more years to learn from his 2 largest 2016 mistakes,
honest.abe
(9,238 posts)- Label Democratic nominees as corporatists, Wall Street buddies, establishment Dems
apcalc
(4,528 posts)Women, POC... we can do waaaaaay better.
Not interested. I can get the whole package with others.
TCJ70
(4,387 posts)This is not a bullet point list from the Sanders campaign. There are things covered in the announcement that aren't in that list. There isn't an issues page up yet that I can find, but you can read the full text of the announcement here towards the bottom of the article:
https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/politics/elections/2019/02/19/bernie-sanders-2020-presidential-campaign-announcement-democratic-party/2911315002/
Apollyonus
(812 posts)No thanks.
His rhetoric will end up maligning and severely damaging the eventual nominee. (Which Sanders has NO chance of becoming.)
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)Apollyonus
(812 posts)I cringed when Trump was saying "look how they treated poor Bernie Sanders" as though defeating him in legitimate election was somehow malfeasance of some sort.
Trump did that in practically every rally after the DNC convention, driving home the message to Bernie supporters that Bernie was cheated out of a sure nomination.
mvd
(65,912 posts)I am just not sure I am going to pick him in the primaries again. There is time to decide.
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)All I'm saying is that any suggestion that the Democratic party is the "same" as the GOP is false and it serves no good purpose. If people are convinced (through repetition) that there's "no difference" then they have no reason to vote for Democrats.
That type of rhetoric is divisive and it only serves to weaken the party. It causes resentment, distrust and suspicion. And, of course, a weakened Democratic party only benefits the GOP (and Trump, and Russia).
NotHardly
(2,705 posts)
I'm with you NurseJackie
George II
(67,782 posts)
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)What's his plan to increase jobs, which are the basis for our economy, and the source of much of the country's revenue?
Infrastructure?
All I see is spending. I approve of most of those things on his agenda, but we need a healthy economy as the underpinning of those expenses.
Apollyonus
(812 posts)Climb Mt. Everest
Cross Pacific Ocean on a bamboo raft
Swim from Long Island to Southampton
Live with lions on the Serengeti plain
Catch a live yeti in Nepal
Beat the most interesting man in the world by drinking twice as much Dos Equis
Eliminate poverty
Cure Cancer
Outlaw death and sickness
Reverse global warming into global cooling
Convert all violent criminals into non-violent Buddhist monks
Don't ask if I'll ever achieve any of it and especially don't ask for plans ... just vote for me. The list sounds damn impressive.
Tumbulu
(6,630 posts)Just hearing his name boils my blood.
True Blue American
(18,579 posts)Wait for it! Candy Crush!
True Blue American
(18,579 posts)Real Democrats there!
TexasTowelie
(127,350 posts)Apollyonus
(812 posts)Please send me $27 immediately!
Arazi
(8,887 posts)NotHardly
(2,705 posts)TCJ70
(4,387 posts)
Trumpocalypse
(6,143 posts)
doc03
(39,086 posts)SidDithers
(44,333 posts)Sid
sellitman
(11,745 posts)There are always issues that bother us about any candidate. That wasn't my point and you know it.
Blue_Tires
(57,596 posts)You're giving a rooster credit for the sunrise...
And I guess I'd be feeling a bit more optimistic if Sanders didn't spend the last three years pissing on the party more than he pissed on Trump...
sarcasmo
(23,968 posts)
Yonnie3
(19,458 posts)Admin has asked that we lock all active primary threads in General Discussion.
If you like, please repost in the Democratic Primaries forum and continue there.