2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumSanders supporters
Say by some miracle Sanders is elected President and has a republican house and senate to contend with, please enlighten me hoe and what he is going to get done from his promises?
NewImproved Deal
(534 posts)coffeeAM
(180 posts)He is not hated like Clinton is by the other side , so he can actually get something done.
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)King of amendments. He's good at naming post offices, though. He'll get lots of Rethug support in that area.
pangaia
(24,324 posts)Txbluedog
(1,128 posts)For his agenda---the agenda that the republican have already called socialist?
Sejon
(109 posts)Executive orders were used to implement it.
Lizzie Poppet
(10,164 posts)Sure, a lot of his agenda is going to be resisted tooth and nail by the GOP...that's a given. But so are the parts of Clinton's that we on the left care about (while her less-palatable items might get comparatively smooth sailing because they're pro-corporate). We have to acknowledge that with a GOP-controlled Congress, many liberal, pro-working-class agenda items advanced by either Democratic candidate will be simply impossible.
So you then have to ask yourself which candidate has the experience and personal connections to accomplish the most of what is possible? I think the answer is obvious, frankly. Because Sanders has always been an outsider on the hill, he's had to learn the art of bipartisan cooperation to accomplish anything (and there's a great thread by Dragonfli presenting the extensive list of those accomplishments in this forum...sorry for being too lazy to find it and link! ). He's been doing it for decades.
I think it's fair to say that Sanders is more likely to accomplish things that benefit progressive values if faced with GOP control of both houses.
procon
(15,805 posts)I think it's fair to say that Sander's won't be accomplishing much of anything, either as a Senator or a POTUS. Seriously, he's been in congress for how long, and he could only drum up a handful of his fellow congressmen to endorse him. That's a worrisome outcome for someone who must have the support of the elected Democratic politicians to even start the legislative process.
Sparkly
(24,141 posts)and still surviving as the first potential woman president shows her strength. That's one of the things I most admire about her.
MariaThinks
(2,495 posts)if they were to focus the malicious forces against Bernie as they have done so against Hillary since 1992.
As they have done with Hillary, they will make up lies and labels. Socialist Bernie will be the one to start.
It's actually very easy to do. I wrote a few more and deleted them. I won't do the work for them, so i'll stop. That's one of the things that separates me from some Bernie supporters who are doing the gop dirty work for them against Hillary. I would still support Bernie if he was the nominee.
Sejon
(109 posts)Didn't really hurt Obama either who was called everything from communist, Muslim and black supremacist.
djean111
(14,255 posts)to what Hillary may get done with the willing help of the GOP. Much like it took the GOP to give Obama Fast Track.
Third Way, war, fracking, means-testing Social Security - these are things I believe the GOP would be all too happy to help Hillary with, calling it "bipartisan".
So - whatever Bernie could get done is preferable, to me, to what Hillary might be able to get done. Either she will get some things done that I hate, or the GOP will spend four years obstructing her. How that can be seen as preferable to Bernie is beyond me.
Txbluedog
(1,128 posts)You think they will be any less obstructionists to him than they would to Hillary?
djean111
(14,255 posts)Oh, and, yeah, they may be less obstructionist - they do not hate Bernie like they do Hillary.
And, if you are positing that the president will just be some sort of Queen of England figurehead - I would rather have Bernie.
Also - Hillary as CIC - scares the crap out of me.
So, whatever point you are laboring to make, it is not merely that I prefer Bernie as president - I do not want a Third Way militant Wall Street-hugging Hillary as President.
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)It's pretty amazing that the Hillary supporters ask this question about Bernie, but apparently assume that she miraculously won't have any problems dealing with a Republican House and Senate. As if she has spent 25 years in Congress herself. Nope. That's Bernie.
Certainly, Hillary would accomplish nothing but "compromises", meaning cutting back Social Security, Medicare, the VA system, infrastructure funding and the like while happily sending off more of our young men and women to die and be maimed in foreign countries.
Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)The Republicans hate Hillary Clinton almost as much, or more, as they hate Obama.
TDale313
(7,820 posts)tonedevil
(3,022 posts)Iran.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)Broward
(1,976 posts)Playing the long game here. Gotta move the conversation left and hopefully over time we can pass more progressive legislation.
TDale313
(7,820 posts)And at least we'd have someone in there fighting our fight. And we'll likely have the Senate back. And we work towards regaining the house down the line.
But again some of you have never gotten it. Most of us are not expecting Bernie to wave a magic and fix it all. It's a long game. It's about his ideas and policies. It's about fighting for a more fair and equal society/system. You guys are the ones who seem to think we expect him to perform miracles. He never promised that and we don't expect that.
Txbluedog
(1,128 posts)I work with a lot of college students who are failing classes because they are too busy volunteering for the Sanders campaign to study....a majority of them are under the impression that their student loans will magically disappear and college will be free the moment Bernie is sworn in
TDale313
(7,820 posts)That hasn't been my experience.
immoderate
(20,885 posts)Do they support Hillary because they don't want help?
As a Texas blue dog, what improvements would you like to see in the system?
--imm
djean111
(14,255 posts)Didn't faze Obama, did it? Not a good reason to support Hillary. Not by a million jillion light-years.
LWolf
(46,179 posts)should he get the nomination, we'll be not only working hard to elect him, but working hard to elect people that will work with him in Congress down ticket.
We'll be doing that either way.
I expect that, since he's only said it in almost every speech he gives, he'll be calling on us to be actively supporting his efforts, getting involved, contacting our Senators and reps, and generally growing grass-roots activism for his agenda.
I expect that, just as he gets respect from Republicans, and some votes from them as well, that some Congressional Rs will feel some pressure, as well.
I expect that he will not, as every neo-liberal Dem POTUS has since Bill Clinton, move us backwards, and he will fight, hard, to take steps forward. I expect that, while it will definitely be an uphill fight, together, we will make positive gains.
I will also point out that the only promise I've heard him make is to use Citizen's United as a litmus test for SC appointments. The rest? He's laid out an agenda, promised to fight for that agenda, and told us repeatedly that he can't do it alone. I know he'll keep that promise: he'll fight for us.
And we'll fight with him.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)This question has been hashed & rehashed, answered over and over, for nearly a year
now on DU and elsewhere. Could you Hillarians at least think of topics/questions that
haven't already been talked to death.
Txbluedog
(1,128 posts)And now more than at any time in our past, we live in an age of instant gratification. If Sanders becomes President and cannot immediately deliver, disillusionment will be quick to set in.
djean111
(14,255 posts)That's preferable to a bunch of Hillary supporters who would be, I presume, hap[py with all of her "compromises" with the GOP on things like Social Security. And then there is her propensity for war. Are you really looking forward to that?
Trajan
(19,089 posts)Bernie has a better chance of seating a Democratic congress, by far ...
This question is so .... pedestrian .... You should have already known the answer ...
Pointless ...
immoderate
(20,885 posts)But he gonna set us straight.
--imm
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)We understand that he's promising to push, promote and advocate for legislation. We get that he's not a king.
Sanders has longer coattails to improve the odds of a Democratic Senate, but as we've seen, there's no reason to believe a democratic senate will be any more receptive to promoting the public interest.
Hiraeth
(4,805 posts)KansDem
(28,498 posts)If he opposes or blocks anything Pres. Sanders proposes, I'll be on him like flies on shit on a hot summer day!
It's very easy to route my weekend errands to go by his office. I'll pop in and ask his staff, "What's going on here? Why is Rep. not doing anything about the Prez's new ideas? Get with it!! The people have spoken!!" And I will encourage any colleagues to do the same. And we'll do this over and over and over...
This approach differs than the "old way" when election time was coming and we all said, "Oh, another election." Then we listened to the pundits and read corporate media newspapers and magazine and let them tell us which person to vote for. And when the election was over, either our candidate won and we were happy, or lost and we were sad. Then we'd go back to the daily grind until the next election.
No more. Democracy is now a 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year responsibility.
pdsimdars
(6,007 posts)we're tired of explaining things to people who aren't really interested in knowing.
Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)larkrake
(1,674 posts)The Presidency does not matter, its the down ticket that is crucial, and Hillary has no support in the Congress, Bernie has worked so well as the amendment king with dems and republicans. Hillary has no respect and inspires corruption two fold. She wont even veto, she will keep working with lobbyists. She cannot change her spots
CobaltBlue
(1,122 posts)Txbluedog
(1,128 posts)As a Hillary supporter I asked the question of Bernie supporters--- you are free to start a thread asking the same Q of Hillary supporters
CobaltBlue
(1,122 posts)A reason why Bernie Sanders voters like myself do not trust Hillary Clinton is that we think she would sign in for Republican Party-type policy details on passed bills.
2banon
(7,321 posts)Betty Karlson
(7,231 posts)with Clinton's GE disaster verberating all the way down the ticket.