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Edited on Tue Dec-22-09 12:46 PM by Armstead
I think this health care "reform" is a debacle, and part of me wants people like Bernie to do a reverse Lieberman and use the power of the veto to force them to do it better. Part of me is disappointed that he is giving up and supporting this particular bill.
This whole healthcare debacle has exposed how corrupted and weak the Democratic Party has become in terms of actually siding with PEOPLE against Corporate Interests and the Conservative elites.
But trying to find silver linings, I think one good thing will come out of this. The Good Junior Senator from Vermont has in his first term done something VERY important.
Bernie has placed the REAL liberal progressive agenda right out there on the table for all to see. He is moving it from the perception of being "fringe left" to closer to becoming a mainstream position.
Sanders has become a Senator that is respected (and in some ways feared) by his colleagues and the media. And, by extension, he is at least placing the framework of a REAL difference in political and policy choices on the table for all to see.
That is largely a tribute to him, and his political skills. Bernie is a "leftist ideologue" in the best sense of that word. But Bernie is also a smart "pragmatic" politician who knows how to play hardball and wheel and deal. He is also a fundamentally decent guy, whose truly progressive and REALISTIC positions actually resonate with people when he actually gets a chance to speak.
He also makes it clear that real liberalism and progressive populism is not some scary bogeyman. If you really analyze his positions, he is basically what used to be called mainstream liberal Democrat. It is sad that the Democratic Party has helped to muddle the nation's political calculus so much that this is considered "far left" today.
By doing so he is -- at least -- getting discussion of things like truly universal single-payer healthcare placed on the table. He is using his position as Senator -- and an independent whose support for a party is not guaranteed -- to get a New Voice to the table. (The voice is not new, but people who speak it have been ignored and dissed by the media and the Democratic party for too long.) Bernie is pointedly NOT a member of the Democratic Party. He recognizes that party politics is a joke these days, and that the Democratic Party has become fundamentally corrupt. But he is a Democrat by default, because they are at least closer to the "good" than the Dark Side GOP.
By personally making himself a "player" in the system, he is by extension taking a major step that is paving the way for all of the other REAL GOOD Progressive Democrats in Congress and elsewhere to get heard. Hew is helping to create a counterbalance to the ConservaDems and the Corporate DLC types.
It didn't make a difference in the results this time. But at least Bernie has helped to make it possible for liberal progressives and the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party to eventually successfully push harder and open up the system.
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