Beating Trump Is Not Enough: The Real Change Democrats Must Pursue

[Uncle Joe]

(snip)

Bernie Sanders then began his unlikely campaign for president, defying the pundits and the corporate media. Sanders raised issues that had not hitherto been on the agenda since the New Deal: the shortcomings of full-blown capitalism, the impossible cost of higher education, the obscene growth of extreme wealth, our pursuit of empire, and the increasing threat of global warming, which free markets cannot cure.

(snip)

The problem is that, as the 2008 financial crisis reminded us, there was already a third way, the social democratic policies of the New Deal that reached their greatest expression in the Scandinavian countries. For example, the Scandinavian countries have child poverty rates around 5%, whereas our rate of 20% is the highest among advanced economies. Furthermore, the Scandinavian countries offer greater opportunities for middle class people to become entrepreneurs. If your health insurance, college tuition, and pension are already taken care of, it is far easier for you take the risk and start your own business. And the meanness quotient is far less in those societies.

While the law and economics movement was seductive to many, I knew that history did not support the concept. As an employment and civil rights attorney, I observed how judges who adhered to that philosophy harmed the legal interests of working people. Most Americans are familiar with legal issues that get the most press coverage, like abortion. But damage is being done in the everyday evolution of legal doctrine that is under the radar.

When there is a better practical alternative, it is hard to get excited about a Democratic presidential candidate who did not know the ideals that came before the law and economics movement. It was the New Deal, not the neo-liberalism of Bill Clinton, that once made the Democratic Party the majority party in this nation. Indeed, neo-liberalism meant our decline and the election of Donald Trump.

(snip)


https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/12/08/beating-trump-not-enough-real-change-democrats-must-pursue

[oldsoftie]

1. And you cant pay for it, Bernie. Sorry, but getting rid of Trump IS the MAJOR thing.

Even if everything else stayed exactly as it is now, giving trump the boot would immediately make everything start to improve after jan 2021

[MH1]

8. Never putting Trump there in the first places, WAS the MAJOR thing in 2016.

And because we screwed that up, it is the MAJOR thing again. As you say.

For me it isn't even whether things improve very much. The real tragedy is that we are at a point where we have to stop the massive bleeding before we can even consider actually healing the patient.

[MFM008]

2. Its enough for me

......

[DownriverDem]

9. It's enough for me too

Biden can win enough states to beat trump. We must win first if we ever want to move forward. Don't forget that the president has to work with Congress. Making a lot of promises that won't ever come true is just going to pissed voters off.

[abqtommy]

3. For me beating/getting rid of tRUMP is the important first step in the process of finally

establishing democracy in the U.S. With tRUMP gone the work is only beginning.

[OldRed2450]

4. We have to beat Trump to move forward with anything

and I don't think Bernie can do it.

[DownriverDem]

10. Agree

There are many candidates that would never win the President Election.

[Hoyt]

5. Beating trump is essential. Why run someone with low odds of doing so?

Sanders, Warren, Yang, Williams, and a few others ensure a GOPer landslide in my opinion, no matter how good some of their ideas are.

[Thekaspervote]

12. Agree!! But I guess they aren't looking at the polls and poll averages

RCP
Biden 27.8
Sanders 15.6
Warren 14.2

There’s an obvious front runner here. Voters are getting the message!!

[JoeOtterbein]

6. K n R ! Thanks for posting! nt

[ritapria]

7. We win with a message of Economic Populism

That is how we activate the democratic base :Young voters , POC , working class voters . Trump's base is going to show up in droves .It our base stays home , we will probably lose .It ain't the 1990's anymore .None of our candidates are going to carry the day with charisma .We have to win on Message .

[Thekaspervote]

13. You're right and Joe has the message that is resonating with voters!!

Polls and poll averages show this

RCP latest average
Biden 27.8
Sanders 15.6
Warren 14.2

Why would anyone risk candidates with these low poll numbers!!

[emmaverybo]

18. Sanders is not doing that great with POC. Economic populism is not that popular when it's the only

vision and message a candidate has to give. It’s not that popular with the majority of POC. So far Sanders does well with young progressives, but does not lead other candidates in support from the wider electorate, not in the Democratic Party or across America.

So far, Sanders lacks AA support.

[PatrickforO]

19. That's because big money drove the racial wedge in to

divide us once again.

Works every time.

The root cause of the inequities that plague us is not Trump. It is laissez-faire capitalism. The primacy of the shareholder. Busting unions, deregulation, privatization and gutting social safety nets.

Bernie and Warren are attacking that root cause, and big money is lining up against them. The media is reporting they are going down in the polls. Wall Street simply can't have a Bernie or an Elizabeth Warren in the presidency, and as leader of the party. Even Obama is putting the brakes on economic populism.

We need to move to the center, we're told, because someone running on a progressive agenda cannot possibly beat Donald Trump.

Lots of holes in that argument, particularly because, as Bernie points out, everything he's proposing has majority approval from the American people.

But, then, big money doesn't care at all about any of us. All the big money cares about is profits.

Profits over people.

That is why we are having all these debates and why there was so much rancor in 2016. Power never concedes anything without a fight, and the oligarchs will get as ugly as it takes to stamp out populism.

They don't want us to have democracy.

They don't want us to have a republic.

They want us working two jobs and living from paycheck to paycheck, slaves to low wages and easy credit.

[randr]

11. First we take the WH

The rest will follow.
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[hack89]

14. Beating Trump is everything

The danger posed by four more years of Trump makes it an imperative.

[Garrett78]

15. If there is to be any hope of the US becoming more like, say, Denmark...

...there will first need to be a major reduction in racism and sexism. So, there needs to be much more focus on tackling systemic racism and systemic sexism. The reason many don't object to wealth inequality or care about addressing climate change or care about universal health insurance is that they're fine with struggling so long as "the other" is worse off (read the NYT's The 1619 Project piece on opposition to universal health insurance). And the wealth disparities between white households and Black and Brown households, which would be reduced or eliminated by tackling systemic racism, is blamed on racial stereotypes.

Trump didn't win because of economic anxiety. He won because of racism and sexism. That's true of Republicans in general. If you greatly diminish racism alone, you greatly diminish the Republican Party. Actually, the Republican Party would cease to be viable.

[myohmy2]

16. beating trump...

...without a strong Progressive follow up agenda will be a very hollow victory which will ensure another or even worse trump in the future...

...the American people want and need immediate solutions to their many pressing decades-long problems and returning to lukewarm half-hearted milquetoast solutions won't cut it...

...haven't we learned anything about the true meaning of the trump 2016 victory?

...go ahead, keep your powder dry, take the high road, play your vest close to your cards and see what happens, again...

...after 4 more years of trump we'll be right back here licking our wounds and debating the meaning of air while pukes once again sat in the White House after cleaning our clocks with bullshit...

...a 2020 victory without purpose is almost meaningless...

...Bernie's the best and only value-added candidate we have to bring post-election purpose and meaning while bringing trump to his knees in the general...

...Bernie's the man...

[beastie boy]

17. Ok, Uncle Joe. Let's assume, for kicks and giggles, there is a better practical alternative.

And let's say it gets the dude from commondreams excited. And let's assume that I am taking commondreams seriously. And let's assume, for the sake of hysterical laughs and with total disregard of Clinton's record, that he was a neo-libeeral... isn't it a bit premature to trash other Democrats who actually won elections for Democrats BEFORE you can show you can beat Trump?

Seriously, is this what commondreams peddling now? It's not enough to beat Trump, let's trash Democrats while we are at it...

Jeez!