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The Most Pragmatic Way to Fix American Democracy: Elect Bernie Sanders

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#1

The Most Pragmatic Way to Fix American Democracy: Elect Bernie Sanders

Robert Reich

The Democratic contest has repeatedly been characterized as a choice between Hillary Clinton’s “pragmatism” and Bernie Sanders’s “idealism” – with the not-so-subtle message that realists choose pragmatism over idealism.

But this way of framing the choice ignores the biggest reality of all: the unprecedented, and increasing, concentration of income, wealth and power at the very top, combined with declining real incomes for most and persistent poverty for the bottom fifth.

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#2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xxgRUyzgs0

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#3

I agree with this accurate analysis by Mr. Reich… however, the same article (or most of it) was formerly published on C.D.

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#4

" I have worked closely with her ( HRC ) and have nothing but respect for her." Robert Reich.

WOW! That quote speaks volumes!
Robert, the fake opposition party hack, saying he supports Bernie even though HRC is the better candidate?

Robert, how in hell can you respect this politically, evil woman who has the blood of soooo many people on her hands and should be indicted for war crimes for VOTING FOR THE IRAQ WAR! And what she has admitted to was a “MISTAKE”.

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#5

It seems to in 2008 Barack Obama called for the exact same thing as Sander’s political revolution. Obama said he can’t do it alone and that he needs the people to get involved. He actually created an organization to help the people get behind his efforts. Needless to say Obama’s efforts to involve the people largely failed. Once the election is over people sort of go back to their own lives and let the politicians in Washington do their own thing. One has to really be almost dreaming to believe Bernie Sanders will have any better luck. And he will be facing a House of Representatives controlled by the Republicans not the his own party (at least now he claims to be a Democrat). Actually based on his record as mayor of Burlington I would expect Sanders to be as pragmatic as Clinton might be. I think in an executive position Sanders is a pragmatist who will be willing to compromise with the Republicans to get something done. It won’t be what he campaigned on exactly but he will try to push things forward as Obama has done.

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#6

Thank you Robert, this means a lot coming from you a former cabinet member with Clinton.

#7

What must happen is a political revolution this election, electing Bernie as President and voting out the obstructionists giving control back to more liberal/progressives in both houses of Congress. We need a healthy check and balances by another party but the republicans have proved themselves unworthy to govern and the republican voters need to elect leaders who will serve the interest of the people.

#8

“The state is acutely aware of our rights, needs, frustrations and aspirations. It manipulates them with appalling cynicism. This is how Barack Obama got elected. And it is why the Democratic Party — which has carried out an economic and political assault against workingmen and -women, obsequiously served the demands of the merchants of death that manage empire, assisted in the building of our vast system of mass incarceration, expanded the assault on the ecosystem by the fossil fuel industry and revoked most of our civil liberties — tolerates Bernie Sanders. It can force him, in the end, to play by its rules. It will demand that Sanders become its propagandist, which he has agreed to do if he is not the Democrats’ presidential nominee, in the battle with corporate Republicans to control the perks and financial rewards that come with political power. ‘The enthusiasm around Bernie Sanders’ campaign is like the enthusiasm around Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign,’ [Jill] Stein said, ‘[a]nd in the Obama campaign, people were betrayed. We have to lift up an alternative, outside a corporate party, that will not be about betrayal. On a national level it is certainly gamed. But there are many purposes that the national race serves. One is to build a structure through which, eventually, circumstances may permit a victory [for progressive change]. This may not be now, but we have to build it. Social change happens because of social movements, but political and electoral movements can help amplify that. It can help fan the flames.’” – Chris Hedges, Local Resistance Can Overthrow Our Political Masters (Truthdig, 10/4/15)

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#9

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#10

Sanders will certainly betray progressives if elected. He has promised to drone-kill alleged terrorists & to smash ISIS, meaning he is promising to piss our wages down a hole, just like all his predecessors.

Imperialist war is incompatible with socialism. You cannot pay the bill for America’s continued aggression and have any leftover for human needs.

Sanders is another Democrat Trojan Horse.

Why anyone expects different is a mystery to me.

#11

As much as I like mr Reich I really doubt his assessment. In fact general belief in a god like savior figure who will save us all is naive and impractical. Obama was a great hope until Republican congress stopped him in midway. Even worse will happen with Sanders.

I am not saying republicans will compromise with Clinton but she is definitely more electable

#12

It mystified me why anyone would willingly still write the trope that “HRC is more electable.” Where in hell have you been for weeks now, when EVERY poll or analysis, shows that BERNIE beats any Rethuglican by way more points than she does? Wake up, sleepyhead!
Furthermore,l think this piece by Dr. Reich is brilliant. So there, whiners! He RE-affirms earlier arguments he’s made but knocks this ball outta the park by his closing statements that HRC is the best candidate FOR THE SYSTEM WE NOW HAVE [but it is broken and will not serve for democracy!!! -exclamations mine]; it therefore follows, when he pens his powerful peroration [my alliteration intentional] that SANDERS IS THE BEST CANDIDATE for the system WE NEED. Please read to the end of Reich’s piece before jumping to fallacious assumptions.
Finally, in order to give BERNIE the leverage he is going to need in our present rigged election system, all of us who want THEBERN can assist MIGHTILY by taking the pledge @ www.citizensagainstplutocracy.org. The greater the numbers of us who show the corrupt Democratic nomination system that we will not support it, but only support BERNIE-with this pledge–the better his chances of being the nominee. For God’s sake, for my sake, for the sake of our democracy and future generations of the US, take the pledge!

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#13

Although rigidity tends to suit Right Wing personalities…

Your insistence that the Past = the future shows that you have no capacity to envision change.

Sanders is not a one man show.

This nation is under the full grip of the MIC.

But Sanders is rousing a public response to decades of betrayal. And that is a torrent that cannot be easily put back into the bottle.

Once again, in arguing against Sanders… given the state of this nation including its draconian attacks on civil liberties, its police violence, its NRA gun worshippers, its massive Christian fundamentalist numbers, its deluded by the MSM true believers in a war against ISIS, its control by corporate hegemons… what the phuck else do you think is actually possible right now?

YOU ARE ARGUING FOR A TRUMP…

Otherwise, you’re an FBI infiltrator who’s saying that nothing will work apart from bloody revolution and hoping to get someone who posts, or some group that identifies as Left of center, to DO something so that the boys in blue have a pretext for breaking “it” up.

#14

I see you clicked a wrong button and you meant it for me ? Accuracy is quite a critical trait when you put statements like every poll. May I suggest you check them again ? You will change your sentence to some polls.

#15

Your confidence in Bernie Sanders is passionate but lacks conviction. Why should we invest trust and hopes in the cheerleader rousing fans before the game but never touching the ball? Bernie’s melodious campaign speeches sound good and stir the soul, but feasibility and practicability do not appear to be virtues in his estimation. Today solid research organizations placed the cost of his single-payer health program a trillion dollars a year (not over 10 years). No such proposal would have a chance of adoption in France or Canada, let alone the American economy that you know so well, Dr. Reich. How can his promises of soaking the rich to leach out funds for Medicare-for-all be seen as possible, let alone probable? Are you simply trying to get all of us to “look to the East” where salvation awaits us all, because probabilities are greater in direct proportion to how many of us are looking in the same direction? If so, say so! Then give us a credible and convincing hint as to how Bernie’s promises could possibly unfold and be realized in even 8 years!