Gave some Sanders supporters a civics lesson today....

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. There is an awful lot of ignorance in this country about how our government actually works,

including here on DU. I wonder when they stopped teaching this stuff in high school? There are so many misconceptions about the powers of the presidency, the fact that both houses of Congress have to approve legislation (and the process of reconciling bills in Congress usually results in something much different from the original bills), and then the president has to sign it. And then the Supreme Court might weigh in if the constitutionality of the law is challenged. And it seems like hardly anybody has actually read the Constitution, either.

It's not uncommon for politicians to promise the moon, but I would hope voters understand that these plans are merely aspirational. Knowing what a candidate would like to do is useful as a guide to his/her ideology, but the candidates themselves - especially the Senators - know damn well that they can't make these promises come true all by themselves, and they aren't being honest with voters (who they also know damn well are mostly pretty ignorant about the process) if they're writing checks they can't cash.