2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: WHY Do You SUPPORT Bernie Sanders? [View all]anotherproletariat
(1,446 posts)To the contrary of the lovely Bro...I think it is totally reasonable to like someone's ideas, but not think they would make a good president. Most people have some sort of end goal that they would like to see achieved by our government and our leaders. By and large, those issues are similar for people on the same side of the spectrum. The real differences come in how to go about reaching those goals.
I see our government as a historically established body which was created to deal with all of the various opinions found in society. Because there will be input from those on all sides of the ideological spectrum, there is rarely ever a consensus about anything. Instead, our process allows for give and take...and yes, that dirty word for the ideologically pure Berners...compromise. Written into our constitution are specific powers of the minority, so even IF (and that is a big IF) there were to be some sort of revolution, and both houses of congress were flipped to Democratic control, a President Sanders still could not achieve all of his desires. As an example, trying to raise taxes enough to pay for these massive programs would have to be done many years before the public would ever see any advantage, since significant financing will be required to build the programs to the point where they can function. The public outcry would be like something we have never experienced before.
So yes, I think a long-term progressive goal should be universal healthcare and higher education accessible to everyone. In this way, I do agree with Sanders, BUT...I don't see that he has given any workable plans to achieve these goals (or any other of his campaign promises), and I feel that Hillary has a much better chance of moving policy towards the left.