"She’s the most qualified candidate for president of the political system we now have"

[Marty McGraw]

"But Bernie Sanders is the most qualified candidate to create the political system we should have, because he’s leading a political movement for change."



The Volcanic Core Fueling the 2016 Election

by Robert Reich




Not a day passes that I don’t get a call from the media asking me to compare Bernie Sanders’s and Hillary Clinton’s tax plans, or bank plans, or health-care plans.

I don’t mind. I’ve been teaching public policy for much of the last thirty-five years. I’m a policy wonk.

But detailed policy proposals are as relevant to the election of 2016 as is that gaseous planet beyond Pluto. They don’t have a chance of making it, as things are now.

The other day Bill Clinton attacked Bernie Sanders’s proposal for a single-payer health plan as unfeasible and a “recipe for gridlock.”

Yet these days, nothing of any significance is feasible and every bold idea is a recipe for gridlock.

This election is about changing the parameters of what’s feasible and ending the choke hold of big money on our political system.

I’ve known Hillary Clinton since she was 19 years old, and have nothing but respect for her. In my view, she’s the most qualified candidate for president of the political system we now have.

But Bernie Sanders is the most qualified candidate to create the political system we should have, because he’s leading a political movement for change.

More from the Story:
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/01/26/volcanic-core-fueling-2016-election

[Paulie]

1. Kick

[Marty McGraw]

5. Thank You..

Still new somewhat to the skill of starting a post. I think I see some tweeks to be made for more emphasis !

[Warren DeMontague]

2. If she was really ask skilled as her supporters claim, she'd be able to change her tactics.

She can't. She can't do the bold leadership thing, or she's not willing to.

She can't go out on a limb and take even popular positions that might be at all controversial or forward-thinking, because it's not in her political DNA.

Which calls into question whether she's really as formidable a political entity as we've been told she is.

[Marty McGraw]

4. Just as

The Cabled Media would Like us to Believe (and see us Behave)

[Blus4u]

3. & R

Peace

[Marty McGraw]

7. And

Harmony!

[Jarqui]

6. This is a great quote as well:

Gilens and Page analyzed 1,799 policy issues in detail, determining the relative influence on them of economic elites, business groups, mass-based interest groups, and average citizens.

Their conclusion: “The preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically nonsignificant impact upon public policy.

Instead, lawmakers respond to the moneyed interests – those with the most lobbying prowess and deepest pockets to bankroll campaigns.”

If average Americans had a “near-zero” impact on public policy then (1981-2002 time of study), their impact is now zero.

I'd go one explicit step further: if you vote for Hillary, you will continue having zero impact on public policy, maybe for the rest of your lives because people like Bernie don't come along very often. Or you risk this ending in violence as folks get intolerably pissed off.

Sadly, Obama asked for our help and we only gave him two years of Senate & House control. With a mandate, he could have cleaned a lot of things up.

and one other on the choice in the general election:

Either you’re going to be attracted to an authoritarian son-of-a-bitch who promises to make America great again by keeping out people different from you and creating “great” jobs in America, who sounds like he won’t let anything or anybody stand in his way, and who’s so rich he can’t be bought off.

Or you’ll go for a political activist who tells it like it is, who has lived by his convictions for fifty years, who won’t take a dime of money from big corporations or Wall Street or the very rich, and who is leading a grass-roots “political revolution” to regain control over our democracy and economy.

[Marty McGraw]

8. Yep. If the door has not already Slammed Shut.

Be prepared to hear the padlock be put into place for good on any legislation ever being provided for the public good.

Maybe looking into the future the newly representative breakaway of SierraCascadia will tend to their peoples need in a more progressive way....... One can only wonder.

http://healthcareforall.org/our-mission

[Jarqui]

9. That's how it happened in Canada

One province, Saskatchewan, brought in free hospital care in 1946 (they couldn't afford single payer yet). The guy behind it, Tommy Douglas, was voted the Greatest Canadian about 20 years after he died (primarily for getting Canadians healthcare). Then the province of Alberta and within 15 years, all of Canada.

Colorado to vote on single-payer state health-care system
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_29093230/colorado-vote-single-payer-state-health-care-system

http://www.healthcareforallcolorado.org/

It could happen on a state by state basis but it's harder to do, not as cost effective and takes longer.

The difference between now and then, is that it's been proven over and over as a much better way to manage healthcare costs. So there shouldn't be as much trepidation. What's needed is the mandate Bernie's looking for in his "political revolution".

[Marty McGraw]

10. Yes

If the Country in whole can't get it's act together on this, then perhaps we will see our more populated states Lead the Way!

Thanks for the History bit on Saskatchewan, Jarqui!

[Jarqui]

11. If those states have an ally in the federal gov't like Bernie,

then maybe the feds can help underwrite such that Vermont, Colorado and California can get rolling and maybe straighten up wherever Massachusetts left off. When the country sees 4-5 states working, family members in those states can share anecdotes, etc and the fear mongering bubble is burst.

To me, the biggest reason the US doesn't have single payer is fear mongering bullshit rhetoric paid for by corporate America. It's cost lives, jobs, etc.

[Marty McGraw]

12. exactly!

and you say it so clearly Jarqui!

Thanks for That!

[libodem]

13. Must Admit

She far exceeds any Republican out there!
Truely.

[frylock]

14. Reich pens substance while Krugman whinges about Berniebros.