Hillary Clinton
Related: About this forumThe Barre and Montpelier, Vermont Times Argus Endorsement Hillary Clinton
Bernie Sanders appears poised for a runaway victory in the Vermont presidential primary on Tuesday, an extraordinary outcome in an extraordinary year during which he has mounted a serious and substantive challenge to the front-runner, Hillary Clinton. This paper, nevertheless, endorses Clinton for president.
This endorsement rests on Clintons breadth of experience and her proven commitment to those many issues where she shares a progressive outlook with Sanders. The very notion of political experience has taken on a negative connotation in this surprising year because voters associate it with compromise and corruption. But outsider status, which Sanders has always enjoyed, does not automatically confer wisdom or ability. Clintons experience as a hard-working, policy-oriented senator and a secretary of state who restored the good name of the United States weighs heavily in her favor.
The contest between Clinton and Sanders has been framed as a choice between pragmatism and idealism, between incrementalism and boldness. Framing it that way oversells what Sanders offers. Fighting for health care reform, as Clinton has done for a quarter century, has been an exercise in idealism. It has been a long, difficult fight against powerful entrenched interests. The Clinton administration didnt succeed in the 1990s. The Obama administration has made significant progress, and Clinton is right to underscore the importance of that victory.
Its easy to hold out the promise of grand solutions. On Sanders part these would include a Medicare-for-all, single-payer health care system and free college for everybody. These are lofty and worthy goals; Medicare-for-all was Ted Kennedys idea. But Clinton is willing to be square with the American people in acknowledging that getting to those goals would be a step-by-step process, requiring the kind of painstaking work she did as a senator.
Sanders millions of followers respond by saying that if we sign on to the movement he is leading we can achieve these goals. If we would only throw the bums out of Congress who are standing in the way, then the political revolution would be at hand.
That is a big if. We can all wish for it to happen, but the world of 2017 is likely to look differently than we wish it would. Clintons more thorough and realistic understanding of domestic policy would probably be better suited to that world.
http://www.timesargus.com/article/20160228/OPINION01/160229683/1021
BlueMTexpat
(15,366 posts)state that will provide a landslide for Bernie!
livetohike
(22,136 posts)Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Good to see some reality.
dlwickham
(3,316 posts)What does that tell you
George II
(67,782 posts)...Burlington is only another city in Vermont, 30 miles from the Capital.
handmade34
(22,756 posts)UtahLib
(3,179 posts)DesertRat
(27,995 posts)SunSeeker
(51,550 posts)brer cat
(24,555 posts)DemonGoddess
(4,640 posts)Cha
(297,123 posts)"The contest between Clinton and Sanders has been framed as a choice between pragmatism and idealism, between incrementalism and boldness. Framing it that way oversells what Sanders offers. Fighting for health care reform, as Clinton has done for a quarter century, has been an exercise in idealism. It has been a long, difficult fight against powerful entrenched interests. The Clinton administration didnt succeed in the 1990s. The Obama administration has made significant progress, and Clinton is right to underscore the importance of that victory. "
Sanity.
Thank you, Historic NY!
Hillary4Prez2016
(33 posts)can get enough of the vote where he doesn't get every single delegate there.