Bernie Sanders Faces Feisty Democratic Challenger

[JCanete]

407. So yes, we are in better shape when we elect Democrats, at least while they are in office,

but it is just not going to be enough for those of us engaged in politics to simply vote D no matter what. That takes away any influence the left has. Its voice is quieter than money. Money wins elections. And in large part that money is the indirect stuff that impacts the leanings found at your trusted paper or your trusted cable news outlet. Politicians have to have a damn good reason to end up on the wrong side of establishment oriented editorials and pundits. If they have the left sewn up as a guarantee, they will never have a good enough reason.

But yes of course, we would have been better off with Hillary Clinton than Don, Gore than W, and we were better off with Bill Clinton than Dole, and Obama than Romney or Mccain. What we can't know is what the party would have looked like over the decades without the existence of a liberal wing, willing to withhold its support. Whether it was smart or practical for people to ultimately vote for Nader, or Stein, or to stay home, is debatable...it certainly wasn't my calculation when it came down to it.

But I think the influence of money on our side of the aisle has hurt our ability to fight that influence, to say nothing of our ability to enact good progressive policy. In my opinion, that has hurt our brand with the american people across the spectrum, and those who already identify with the cultural regressiveness of the GOP aren't given much at all to grasp onto from democrats that might make them reconsider their allegiances. We need easy to understand, big promises, that with public support CAN be achieved, or else we point to those obstructing and unleash the public on them. We need to rail against the system and instead of talking about the realities of changing economies, retraining for some theoretical jobs, etc., talk about how we are going to ENSURE that all people can feed their children and have a living income...that nobody need fall through the cracks in the race of our industries towards more and more profits. When we talk about messing with industries that sustain these people, which do need to die, like coal, etc. we need to talk about that safety-net as real and guaranteed. Then of course we need to fight to provide it once we get elected. And then of course, we do need to invest in our people and retraining towards the future.

We need to generate the public demand so that we have the political will. We keep shying away from that.