Bernie Is Mainstream

[Ferd Berfel]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/bernie-is-mainstream_b_9425348.html

Although his opponents seek to paint him as too far left, Bernie Sanders' views are mainstream. At Wednesday's Washington Post-Univision debate in Miami, for example, Hillary Clinton argued that Sanders' ideas are not realistic and too expensive. "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," Clinton said. In fact, the ideas that Sanders has injected into the campaign are hardly radical. Sanders is in sync with the majority of Americans on most key issues.

Here's a brief run-down:

Big Business

About three-quarters (74 percent) of Americans -- including 84 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of independents, and 62 percent of Republicans -- believe that corporations have too much influence on American life and politics today, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll. In contrast, only 37 percent think that labor unions exercise too much influence.

The Pew Research Center discovered that 60 percent of Americans -- including 75 percent of Democrats -- believed that "the economic system in this country unfairly favors the wealthy."

Fifty-eight percent of Americans said they would support breaking up "big banks like Citigroup," a key plank of Sanders' platform and the goal of a bill that Sanders sponsored in the Senate.

Seventy-three percent of Americans favor tougher rules for Wall Street financial companies, versus 17 percent who oppose stronger regulation.

Sixty-four percent of Americans strongly or somewhat favor regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, factories and cars and requiring utilities to generate more power from "clean" low-carbon sources.

Progressive Taxation

More than three-quarters of Americans....
(snip)

Inequality and Poverty

(snip)

Money in Politics

(snip)

Minimum Wage and Workers' Rights

(snip)

Health Care and Social Security

(snip)

Higher Education

(snip)

Same-Sex Marriage

[pdsimdars]

1. He's mainstream ONLY IF you pay attention to what most Americans want and believe.

His issues and positions are what most people want.

[99th_Monkey]

2. Yep. This election is about Mainstream America v. a Corrupt Establishment. nt