Can someone explain how Sanders' opposition to reparations because they're not politically viable
squares with his "we won't be stopped just because it's hard" approach to other seemingly impossible goals?
Serious question.
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quite specifically on international reparations issues (although the former term was "compensation"
for nearly 20 years, I can tell you that ANY reparations are possible when and where there is a political will. So yes, on the face of it, one wonders why this would be any less politically viable than moving our healthcare system to Medicare for all or breaking up Wall Street banks would be. Selective political choices indeed, IMO.
But - and this is a BIG but - the problem with reparations alone when there are millions of claimants is that programs often can only offer the merest symbolic amounts rather than anything anywhere near the full due. Anyone who tells you otherwise doesn't really know what they are talking about.
There is also a LOT of administrative overhead involved. It's not only the reparations amounts that need to be taken into account, but also the costs of determining amounts and actually paying them out. Even with comparatively streamlined registration and determinations procedures and using the barest minimal standard of proof for eligibility (e.g., any AA whose ancestors lived in the "North" before 1840 and any AA whose ancestors lived in the "South" before 1865), such a program would require staff, offices, and all other accoutrements.
Worst of all, after all this expenditure, what would be the actual result other than what is likely to be only a few extra dollars in the pockets of individuals? It is very likely that the underlying problems of discrimination, inequality, racism, police bias and brutality would remain and likely worsen. Equal Opportunity laws were enacted in part to address these failings, but they have been watered down to meaninglessness.
I firmly believe that even symbolic amounts have values for those who have been wronged or I never would have participated in reparations/compensation programs. But aren't societal reformation and change more practical goals? If so, they can be accomplished in ways that can have more lasting effects and through existing administrative structures, e.g., better schools, better housing, better opportunities, etc.
I would be very happy to be convinced otherwise.
Such is forbidden.
