A very good post by someone who used to feel the Bern.
"Let’s start by stating the obvious: I agree with Bernie Sanders on almost every policy issue at the macro level. I do, in fact, think the game is rigged for millionaires and billionaires. I like peace. I think his proposed reforms for criminal justice will do more for black and brown people than anything any of the other candidates are suggesting. I think climate change is real, and a real problem."
http://www.atlredline.com/i-m-with-her-i-guess-1769742021
Ok on criminal justice, let me just say that Bernie has oversold. He has made some very specific promises about incarceration which are simply impossible at the federal level. Deray McKesson of Black Lives Matter-who is currently running for Mayor of Baltimore has pointed this out.
"What’s more, I like Bernie Sanders. I like irascible New York Jewish liberals, and I would be one if one could choose such a thing. He’s the only candidate running for President this cycle that I would want to have a beer with."
"But, I won’t be voting for him in the New York Democratic Primary. Bernie Sanders has failed according to the terms he established for himself. His stated plan for enacting the lofty goals and principles he talks about on the campaign trail is that he will usher in a “political revolution” that will sweep away the entrenched opposition of Republican officials and established Democrats."
"After many speeches and debates, I see no “revolution” coming in the poll results. Bernie’s support comes from educated white males, young white women, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the Screen Actors Guild. That’s not a political revolution, that’s the check out line at Whole Foods."
"Minorities are voting for Hillary, and working class white men are voting for Donald Trump. Bernie can’t hold together the “Obama coalition,” much less pick up the disaffected whites or irreligious Republicans who would give him the mandate for revolutionary change. We remain a deeply divided country... which is a YUGE problem for Bernie more than anybody since his theory of the case is that voters will overwhelmingly rise to help him pressure Congress into submission."
Yes. A divided country, divided government. The idea that we can wave a magic wand and change this overnight by just saying the words 'break up the big banks' and 'free college' have been shown to be illusory.
A lot of this comes from the fact that people don't like to admit politics is indeed 'bloodsport' as that Joe Klein book ironically put it in the 90s-ironic as it was supposed to be about the Clintons.
I mean it's full contact. You aren't going to win this kind of Immaculate Political Revolution by making a stump speech while not getting your hands dirty.
"And that’s just the big picture. I’m a New Yorker and once you get down into the local issues at play in this primary, Bernie is a problem. “The banks” — a term that he clearly doesn’t fully grasp — are here! They employ people here. You can sit in Kansas or Oklahoma and talk about “breaking up the banks” and get applause. In New York City, you better have a plan to replace those jobs. You better have a plan to replace that tax base. You better have a plan for the waitstaff at Cipriani, because they can’t all serve overpriced duck to the army of new grade-school teachers he plans to hire."
"There’s a reason that Bill de Blasio, the most progressive mayor that we are likely to see in this city for a long, long time, endorsed Hillary Clinton, not Bernie Sanders. And that reason is pretty much the transcript of Sanders’s meeting with the Daily News Editorial Board. "
Indeed. This last weekend, Hillary showed how a meeting with the Daily News Editorial Board is done.
http://diaryofarepublicanhaterblogspotcom.sharedby.co/share/8fnCb9
Sure. Now why didn't Obama think of that? There has never been a pacifistic POTUS before and Bernie clearly isn't running as such either no matter his absurd talk of drones without collateral damage.
But as to the rap on Hillary that she is some sort of uber hawk, this is not true. She is a believer in smart power. This theory of foreign policy was a direct repudiation of the hawkish militarism of George W. Bush.
With smart power, military force is an option, but it's last, not the first option as it was for W's Neocons. Smart power, sees diplomacy as the first option.
"Hillary Clinton is not a secret Republican. She’s not a witch. She’s not going to jail. She’s a hawkish left-of-center policy wonk. She believes in incremental change and compromise. She’d rather pass a crappy law that has some positive outcomes than watch a great law die in committee. She believes in government, she thinks it does work and can work."
"That’s not particularly inspiring. Bernie is sitting there telling us that if we clap really hard, Tinkerbell will live. Hillary is like, “That bitch is dead, I shot her. It’s time to grow up.”
LOL. Truth. Even running against Obama in 2008 this was her message. I think it's too the credit of our party that most of us are voting for it this time.
"One of the reasons our politics is broken right now is that we have completely lost the ability to compromise. We have let the perfect become the enemy of the good. And I think it’s telling that the frontrunners in both parties are the ones who seem most likely to make a deal (with the devil, no doubt), while the challengers are the “true believers” who want the center of the country to submit because they know what’s best. A majority of Americans are telling us that obstinance is not a political virtue. The ideologues are losing on both sides of the aisle. Liberals need to accept that just as much as conservatives. "
Hillary Clinton is not why we progressives can’t have nice things. The entrenched views of conservatives, racists, homophobes, xenophobes, climate deniers, zealots from all religions, and the gun lobby are why we can’t have nice things. Hillary Clinton is the only candidate with a reasonable plan for dealing with those forces."
Agreed. I've argued that Bernie Sanders is the Ted Cruz of the Left. His 26 years in Congress bears this out.
Obama clearly was warning against The Bern the other day when he warned Democrats not to get into the Tea Party syndrome.
"Let’s start by stating the obvious: I agree with Bernie Sanders on almost every policy issue at the macro level. I do, in fact, think the game is rigged for millionaires and billionaires. I like peace. I think his proposed reforms for criminal justice will do more for black and brown people than anything any of the other candidates are suggesting. I think climate change is real, and a real problem."
http://www.atlredline.com/i-m-with-her-i-guess-1769742021
Ok on criminal justice, let me just say that Bernie has oversold. He has made some very specific promises about incarceration which are simply impossible at the federal level. Deray McKesson of Black Lives Matter-who is currently running for Mayor of Baltimore has pointed this out.
"What’s more, I like Bernie Sanders. I like irascible New York Jewish liberals, and I would be one if one could choose such a thing. He’s the only candidate running for President this cycle that I would want to have a beer with."
"But, I won’t be voting for him in the New York Democratic Primary. Bernie Sanders has failed according to the terms he established for himself. His stated plan for enacting the lofty goals and principles he talks about on the campaign trail is that he will usher in a “political revolution” that will sweep away the entrenched opposition of Republican officials and established Democrats."
"After many speeches and debates, I see no “revolution” coming in the poll results. Bernie’s support comes from educated white males, young white women, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the Screen Actors Guild. That’s not a political revolution, that’s the check out line at Whole Foods."
"Minorities are voting for Hillary, and working class white men are voting for Donald Trump. Bernie can’t hold together the “Obama coalition,” much less pick up the disaffected whites or irreligious Republicans who would give him the mandate for revolutionary change. We remain a deeply divided country... which is a YUGE problem for Bernie more than anybody since his theory of the case is that voters will overwhelmingly rise to help him pressure Congress into submission."
Yes. A divided country, divided government. The idea that we can wave a magic wand and change this overnight by just saying the words 'break up the big banks' and 'free college' have been shown to be illusory.
A lot of this comes from the fact that people don't like to admit politics is indeed 'bloodsport' as that Joe Klein book ironically put it in the 90s-ironic as it was supposed to be about the Clintons.
I mean it's full contact. You aren't going to win this kind of Immaculate Political Revolution by making a stump speech while not getting your hands dirty.
"And that’s just the big picture. I’m a New Yorker and once you get down into the local issues at play in this primary, Bernie is a problem. “The banks” — a term that he clearly doesn’t fully grasp — are here! They employ people here. You can sit in Kansas or Oklahoma and talk about “breaking up the banks” and get applause. In New York City, you better have a plan to replace those jobs. You better have a plan to replace that tax base. You better have a plan for the waitstaff at Cipriani, because they can’t all serve overpriced duck to the army of new grade-school teachers he plans to hire."
"There’s a reason that Bill de Blasio, the most progressive mayor that we are likely to see in this city for a long, long time, endorsed Hillary Clinton, not Bernie Sanders. And that reason is pretty much the transcript of Sanders’s meeting with the Daily News Editorial Board. "
Indeed. This last weekend, Hillary showed how a meeting with the Daily News Editorial Board is done.
http://diaryofarepublicanhaterblogspotcom.sharedby.co/share/8fnCb9
And yes, promising to take a flamethrower to the banks is not the best message for winning NY.
She doesn't like Hillary's foreign policy though:
"Hillary’s foreign policy is terrifying. If elected, she will kill people. Many of them will be terrorists and some of them will be criminals, but all of them will be people and she will not let other, non-terrorist people, stand in the way of killing the people she thinks we need to kill. And when she’s not killing people, she will be spying on people in case she needs to kill those people later."
Listen, this is President of the United States. Name me the last POTUS who never killed anyone? And as for Bernie did you hear his foreign policy? Here's what he told the Daily News: he would use drones without collateral damage.
She doesn't like Hillary's foreign policy though:
"Hillary’s foreign policy is terrifying. If elected, she will kill people. Many of them will be terrorists and some of them will be criminals, but all of them will be people and she will not let other, non-terrorist people, stand in the way of killing the people she thinks we need to kill. And when she’s not killing people, she will be spying on people in case she needs to kill those people later."
Listen, this is President of the United States. Name me the last POTUS who never killed anyone? And as for Bernie did you hear his foreign policy? Here's what he told the Daily News: he would use drones without collateral damage.
Sure. Now why didn't Obama think of that? There has never been a pacifistic POTUS before and Bernie clearly isn't running as such either no matter his absurd talk of drones without collateral damage.
But as to the rap on Hillary that she is some sort of uber hawk, this is not true. She is a believer in smart power. This theory of foreign policy was a direct repudiation of the hawkish militarism of George W. Bush.
With smart power, military force is an option, but it's last, not the first option as it was for W's Neocons. Smart power, sees diplomacy as the first option.
"Hillary Clinton is not a secret Republican. She’s not a witch. She’s not going to jail. She’s a hawkish left-of-center policy wonk. She believes in incremental change and compromise. She’d rather pass a crappy law that has some positive outcomes than watch a great law die in committee. She believes in government, she thinks it does work and can work."
"That’s not particularly inspiring. Bernie is sitting there telling us that if we clap really hard, Tinkerbell will live. Hillary is like, “That bitch is dead, I shot her. It’s time to grow up.”
LOL. Truth. Even running against Obama in 2008 this was her message. I think it's too the credit of our party that most of us are voting for it this time.
"One of the reasons our politics is broken right now is that we have completely lost the ability to compromise. We have let the perfect become the enemy of the good. And I think it’s telling that the frontrunners in both parties are the ones who seem most likely to make a deal (with the devil, no doubt), while the challengers are the “true believers” who want the center of the country to submit because they know what’s best. A majority of Americans are telling us that obstinance is not a political virtue. The ideologues are losing on both sides of the aisle. Liberals need to accept that just as much as conservatives. "
Hillary Clinton is not why we progressives can’t have nice things. The entrenched views of conservatives, racists, homophobes, xenophobes, climate deniers, zealots from all religions, and the gun lobby are why we can’t have nice things. Hillary Clinton is the only candidate with a reasonable plan for dealing with those forces."
Agreed. I've argued that Bernie Sanders is the Ted Cruz of the Left. His 26 years in Congress bears this out.
Obama clearly was warning against The Bern the other day when he warned Democrats not to get into the Tea Party syndrome.
Overall, I agree with the assessment. Nike says Just do it. The slogan for US politics, 2016 is Just make a deal.
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