2016 Postmortem
Showing Original Post only (View all)Do you buy into the single payer fantasy of Sanders? [View all]
I've been reading around quite a bit. Newspapers, bloggers, DU. And, absent an actual case, I've seen various forms of a strong assertion from Clinton and her supporters. Let's examine the idea being put forth:
"Bernie Sanders thinks if he's elected President, we will have single payer."
Tell me, Sanders fans.
Do you honestly think that will happen? Do you believe this declaration: "If we elect Bernie Sanders, within four to eight years, we will have single payer."
I do not. I do, however, think Sanders will push that as a goal, a political end game. I believe he will tweak and pinch and poke and run around and introduce increments that will begin the transformation of Obamacare towards a single-payer system.
We're constantly told, "Incrementalism is the only way. Sanders falsely promises the moon!" But does he? He's stating an end goal. He's telling us what he wants to work toward. Does anyone honestly think he would not accept even the tiniest compromise bill that shifted Obamacare an inch closer to single payer?
And isn't that the entire point of the Democratic Party? We're not going to get everything. No one can promise us everything. They can only point to the horizon and go, "There. I want us to go there." Sanders does this. Clinton does not. She looks at next year, next two years, next four years, and declares, "Behold all the things we cannot do."
Is there a Sanders supporter in this space who thinks Bernie will pull magical leftists out of his hat? Or do you believe he, too, will be incrementalist, pragmatic, willing, and fighting, but this time in the right direction?