we know what the majority of Americans want. A whooping 82% think wealthy people have too much power and influence in Washington, with 70% singling out large businesses as having too much power. Nearly 80% support stronger rules and enforcement of regulations on the financial industry. Nearly half of Americans think economic inequality is “very big,” and 34% concede it is “moderately big.” Almost 60% of registered voters and 51% of registered Republicans favor raising to $18,000 from $14,820 the maximum amount that workers can make and still be eligible for the earned income tax credit. A staggering 96% of Americans, including 96% of Republicans, believe money in politics is to blame for the dysfunction of the American system. Close to 80% believe wealthy Americans should pay higher taxes. Nearly 60% favor raising the federal minimum wage requirement to $12 an hour. Sixty-one percent, including 42% of Republicans, approve of labor unions. Sixty percent of Americans think “[i]t is the federal government’s responsibility to make sure all Americans have healthcare,” and 60% of registered voters favor “expanding Medicare to provide health insurance to every American.” Nearly 60% favor free early-childhood education, and 76% are “very concerned” about climate disruption. Eighty-four percent support requiring background checks for all gun buyers. Fifty-eight percent of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
The Democratic Party, however, refuses to go there.
They, and their corporate sponsors, will block all reform even if it means another four years of Trump and the extinguishing of democracy. The only thing they have to sell us is fear—fear of Trump and the Russians.
The issue isn’t what policies voters actually believe. It’s that the left does a horrible fucking job at attracting voters to candidates that best represent their views when the focus is to deride Warren, Pete, or whoever is viewed as a threat to Bernie as exampled by r/wayofthebern and other trolling hotspots on the internet, while Sleepy Joe is uttering awkward white guy racism from podiums and winning.
So are we allowed to be divisive towards sleepy joe and his racism patrol? The rules are getting complicated. I think warren would be ok as a compromise candidate but it’s not a bad thing to point out that she is about trimming the worst excesses of capitalism rather than a root and branch clear out of the corruption.
You need to do serious introspection, Tom. You bash MSM. You defend hit pieces on Warren by a subreddit known to be full of trolls. You’re trying to downplay Warren’s reform in a country that isn’t going to get up and hold a revolution over night. To some degree you are representative of the more toxic form of Sanders’ supporters. You defend all the bullshit that people are sick of because you think you’re doing good. You’re living in some fantasy world.
When the hell did I do any of that? That’s a pretty unfair framing to say the least. I accurately characterise the MSM as an agent of the status quo (that’s what mainstream means). Don’t think I’ve defended any Warren hitpieces (I haven’t even read any) if those pieces agree that she is a manager not a reformer then it’s not a hit piece it’s an accurate piece. I think I’ve made an accurate assessment of warren and haven’t downplayed anything. Maybe I’m incorrect but it’s not a bad faith position. She would likely be one of the better presidents and would certainly do some good. Perhaps I’m toxic but I’d like to see more people than you agree with that before I delve too deeply into introspection. Can you be more specific about the bullshit I’m defending and the problems I am likely to cause? Like if there’s something I’m not seeing and I’m genuinely harming our nascent left wing movement that’s something I want to know a lot more about and change as fast as I can. You haven’t sold me thus far.
Like Jesus Christ. This is what the next 8 months is going to be. Bernie fans point out shitty things that candidate X does, candidate X fans point out that there are gross Bernie fans on the internet. No discussion of what candidate is actually correct on the issues. Just constant deflection to more favorable fighting grounds, and attempts to silence criticism by labeling it as divisive.
And which is it - are Bernie and Warren basically indistinguishable in terms of policy, making Bernie fans’ attacks on her counterproductive and unfair, or does Warren have noticeably different policies that are, in your opinion, more palatable to the general public? You can’t have it both ways.
i’m taking the republican primary voter perspective on our primaries. i support who i support based on my gut, and i don’t hate anybody else because i’ll definitely vote for any dem candidate. like i’d vote for bloomberg, even, i’m nuts. i’m fuckin nuts over here.
Define comparable. She certainly pitching much further left than clinton (who essentially ran as a republican from 10 years ago). But if your most important question is ‘can technocratic tinkering rein in the excesses of capital?’ she answers in the same way as clinton.
Yeah there are choices besides full blown socialism and fascism (which is not capitalism). In real life there’s a spectrum between private control of the economy and public control of the economy and both extremes suck. The right answer is some combination of both.
This whole argument is tired and over. We’ve literally tried both extremes and they both suck. The debate that remains is about which things should be government controlled, which should be private, and what tools we should use to manage the negative externalities of both.
LOL oooook. It’s the excesses of straight up corruption (for which government bears a share of the responsibility) dude. Capitalism has plenty of flaws, but it’s also got plenty of positives. Just because you don’t really understand how anything works doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.
Basically Capitalism badly needs new metrics pushed asap. It’s doing a great job of optimizing for what it’s targeting. The problem is the target.
Actually, you defending the horseshit that comes out of r/wayofthebern is trying to have it both ways. That’s an established trolling subreddit. You think you can trash talk about anyone besides Bernie with impunity, even though you have a trail of shit following you.
Bernie is going to lose to Biden and possibly Warren in the primaries. His policies are so good that other people adopted them. That should make him a shoo in. But between him not being as an effective communicator as AOC and Warren and his supporters (like yourself and others here [ex: reactions to skydiver]) being nothing but trolls aren’t a winning formula. Like you’re not convincing anyone with your arguments against Warren or whoever you feel is a threat. It’s blatantly transparent anyone not stuck in the Sanders feedback loop that has been created online to what’s going on.
Today we have had the MSM bashed because they “uphold the wishes of the status quo” (which is really a Trumpian thing to say), and you defending materials emanating from troll subreddits.
People have being saying elements of Bernie supporters are toxic since the last election, and instead of actively trying to restore faith, you’re doubling down on the toxicity.
Holy shit, Bernie has had to address issues pertaining to this, and you guys keep running with it like there’s not some net negative effect on his popularity.
She bears primary responsibility for the CFPB which remains the best attempt at workable new regulation in my lifetime. Obviously it got gutted after 2016, but right before that it was about to basically blow up the payday loan business, which frankly is economic cancerous rent seeking of the absolute worst type.
She’s gotten a LOT more done than Bernie has in a LOT less time. Bernie’s unwillingness to blow up the filibuster alone is disqualifying.