NYT Opinion: Sanders, the Windows 95 of Progressive Politics?

[LuvLoogie]

The real progressive agenda will be written over the next few years, either to push the Clinton administration or to shape a challenge to a Republican president and Congress. But it’s unlikely that this new progressive agenda will be Mr. Sanders’s agenda, specifically, or that Mr. Sanders himself will be the leading advocate and arbiter of progressive policies in the way that Senator Edward M. Kennedy once was. Mr. Sanders is still running the Windows 95 version of progressive politics.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/15/opinion/campaign-stops/is-the-sanders-agenda-out-of-date.html?_r=0

[DCBob]

1. LOL.. he needs an upgrade!

[Skwmom]

3. The problem is that Bernie is actually a real populist progressive. They'd much rather have

a fake one.

[Triana]

7. Yep. They'd rather have a pretentiously fake Democrat than a REAL one. n/t

[Hortensis]

49. This article makes some good points.

Elizabeth Warren was always the candidate we needed. I looked at Sanders carefully and decided he was no substitute. Don't you ever wonder why he wasn't famous for decades of fighting alongside Senators Kennedy and Waxman, and others, for progressive changes? Those who can, do.

Well, he finally did step up and make a difference.

Mr. Sanders’s achievement has been to show the leadership of his recently adopted party that Democrats and many independents under 35 — that is, those who weren’t adults during Bill Clinton’s administration — are eager for a full-throated progressive agenda and are unafraid of backlash.

This is a big contribution, and I for one am grateful (for that if not his other behaviors). But the fact that he is way behind the curve on how to proceed forward is very telling, and this article only makes a point many others already have touched on. He is a very rigid thinker, and new ideas are no more his strong point than working with others to make change actually happen is.

[fasttense]

63. The author of this NYT opinion is a director at New America

I would take anything he said with a huge grain of salt.

[Hortensis]

68. Can't. On this he's saying what I've thought

for a long time.

Tell me, Fasttense, what would have happened if Elizabeth Warren had run for president? SHE lit the fire that Sanders took advantage of. She and others have been working for years to make progressive reforms real, mostly with relatively minor to no practical assistance from Sanders.

Would you have voted for Sanders if he'd run against her? Or would you have wanted her? Why?

[blackspade]

80. I would say that Occupy lit the fire.

That both of them have harnessed....

[Hortensis]

89. No, not to take away from those earnest

young people without leadership or specific goals, but they were a sign of change already happening. Where do you think that black liberal in the White House came from? He wasn't dropped in by aliens with a wicked sense of humor.

[Cal33]

95. Sanders wouldn't have run, if Warren had been a candidate. He would have been

pro-Warren all the way. If I remember correctly, he ran only because Warren
chose not to.

I think Sanders ran because he is more than sick and tired of the "status quo"
which has been visiting incredible disasters upon us, and right now is responsible
for bringing our nation closer and closer to becoming an Oligarchic dictatorship!

[Hortensis]

100. I imagine you're right. But my question was

how great would he seem if dynamic scourge-of-Wall-Street Warren had run... My guess is not great at all.

[DCBob]

10. We need an agenda that might actually get implemented.

Not the idealistic fantasy feel-good stuff Bernie is pushing.

[Skwmom]

13. You would think helping a billionaire MAKE BILLIONS because of tax loopholes would be fantasy

stuff, but not in the US of Corporations.

[Hortensis]

50. Actually a good point. What I like best about

Sanders is his call to stop the very wealthy who have been sacking our nation and are determined to restyle our government of, by, and for the people. Many others may agree, but he's the one yelling warnings from the pulpit.

[jillan]

18. TG people like you were not around in the days of FDR. We'd still be in the Depression.

[DCBob]

19. People like you seem to want to send us all back to the FDR depression era.

No thanks!

[Armstead]

24. Clinton represents those who want take us back to the Gilded Age

[jillan]

30. Are you really unfamiliar with FDR? Wow. Stunning.

[DCBob]

31. Did you know him?

[AntiBank]

58. you are out of you depth, with wooden, clumsy retorts like that

[DCBob]

65. So your personal attack is better??

[hobbit709]

67. did you look in the mirror before you said that?

[DCBob]

69. ..

Get lost.

[hobbit709]

81. I think you already are.

[AntiBank]

73. wasn't a personal attack, I called you on your snarky comment

[DCBob]

75. Is snark banned?

[arcane1]

32. A right-wing agenda, of course n/t

[AntiBank]

56. ok, I will bite, list off your non-fantasy progressive agenda you want to go through

[DCBob]

76. Hillary has many items on her agenda...

You can see them all here..

https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/

[angrychair]

92. As I have stated and will continue to state

Far into the future:
"It's easy to talk about the virtues of compromise when you are not the one being compromised."

[LuvLoogie]

43. It's not a bug. It's a feature.

[MaeScott]

82. A mil goes a long way..lots of derision...little on her merits

[Armstead]

23. Who is the candidate of 90's nostalgia again?

Let's put the Clintons back in the White House

[DCBob]

25. The article is not about Hillary.

Its about who is going to be the next "liberal lion" and it makes a good case its not going to be Bernie.

[Armstead]

27. Depends on how far into the future one projects....

As the old philosopher said "In the long run, we're all dead."

I think for the near future Sanders has broken the stale mold encrusted straightjacket that passes for democratic politics otherwise -- and politics in general.

Whether the Democrats decide to open the windows and air the place out continue to moulder is an open question.

Pardon all my mixed metaphors. Been a long day.

[DCBob]

29. Bernie has at least opened the window.. I will give you that.

Over and out. Have a good night.

[Hortensis]

54. Long day, short post I agree with.

Change is in the air. Hillary should be a strong administrator. With luck, we'll be finding out how forward-thinking she can be in dealing with a constantly changing world. She's "progressive" politically, like all liberals, but as that article wonders, will she be out front in a new progressive wave or merely "nudged and challenged" by it?

[bravenak]

2. Old school to the fullest

And kinda obsolete and lacking intersectionality

[TheBlackAdder]

96. Windows 95 - An Operating Systems before embedded corporate data mining & remote controls

.


Windows 10 is a collective data miner, sending user's directory structures and contents to Amazon and their hub for future heuristic advertising and solicitations.

.

[bravenak]

4. This part right here

For one thing, he has never had the kind of influence with his colleagues that he found with the grass roots this year, in part because he never defined himself as a Democrat. No one expects that he’ll run for president again at 78 or 82, so he won’t have the clout of a senator who is seen as a potential president. And any institutional power he may gain as chairman or a ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee sounds a lot bigger than it really is. The committee’s main job is to produce a nonbinding budget resolution, and in many recent years, it hasn’t even done that.

[procon]

5. The Windows 95 version...the way he's going that will be his legacy. nt

[hobbit709]

6. Hillary-the Windows ME of progressive politics.

[Triana]

8. +1 n/t

[virtualobserver]

70. that was after the upgrade, in her heart she is still Windows 3.1 ,Third Way Edition

[tk2kewl]

85. Clintons-DLC-Third Way are the ILOVEYOU virus of progressive politics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILOVEYOU

Trojan Horse of progressives

Bernie is part of an opensource progressive movement.

This NYT opinion piece is garbage

[DCBob]

9. This is an excellent article. Must read for all DUers.

[JonLeibowitz]

11. I agree, this is hilarious. My girlfriend sent it to me because it is just too funny!

It reads like a The Onion piece.

Hopefully nobody takes this seriously. Or maybe that would be even funnier, if they did.



Seriously though, this opinion piece is pure bullshit.

[DCBob]

16. The author is credible..

Schmitt is the Roosevelt Institute's Senior Fellow and Director of the Fellows Program. Before that he was executive editor of The American Prospect, a position he held since 2008. He guided the Prospect during a period when it won several awards, including the Utne Reader award for best political magazine, for its coverage of the policy and political battles of the first two years of the Obama administration. Schmitt was policy director to former Senator Bill Bradley in the 1990s and a senior advisor on Bradley's 2000 presidential campaign. From 1998 to 2005, he directed a program on political reform at George Soros's Open Society Institute. Before joining the Prospect, he was a senior fellow at the New America Foundation.[3] He earned his bachelor's degree from Yale in 1984.

At least more more credible than you.

[MrMickeysMom]

55. And take this from the credibility of inside Washington, DC!!!

[Hortensis]

61. You don't like the Roosevelt Institute? Really?

I pulled this quickly from Wickipedia, there's other stuff out there.

Joseph Stiglitz is the Roosevelt Institute's chief economist. In 2015, a report authored by Stiglitz offered an indictment of 35 years of U.S. economic policies. The report was expected to influence the economic agenda of Hillary Clinton, whose economic team has ties to the Roosevelt Institute. Elizabeth Warren and Bill deBlasio joined Stiglitz at the press conference to announce the report. The 37 policy recommendations in the Stiglitz report include progressive taxation and an expansion of government programs.[14]

Time called the Stiglitz report "a roadmap for what many progressives would like to see happen policy wise over the next four years." According to the Washington Post, the Institute's plan is "firmly rooted in the conviction that more government can solve most of America's economic challenges. It is a plan seemingly designed to rally liberals, enrage free-market economists and push a certain presumptive presidential nominee to the left."

Now, not that bad? Sanders is not exactly a voice in the wilderness.

[angrychair]

93. The key point there is

"Expected to influence".
Given that a significant portion of her economic and financial advisers are Wall St insiders who became millionaires working at Wall St. firms, I'm not holding my breath that any of them give two shits about the growing income inequality that they are not just examples of but exemplifies given the gross exaggeration of wealth with her inner circle.

[Hortensis]

101. Gotcha. We'll all get to see. Of course, the

problem with learning by experience is that Experience doesn't bother to explain the lesson. Understanding is up to us.

[angrychair]

102. I don't disagree

I would love to see her move toward more positive change with regard to income inequality, unfortunately there is nothing in her history that would give any such indication. Her documented opinion of being broke is only having a couple million dollars.

[Hortensis]

104. Imo, that last is a rather silly statement.

You either actually know that it is not an accurate depiction of her character, and her history, or you do not.

This is kind of what I meant. How we choose to interpret the information that is incredibly available to us today is everything. Misinterpreted information can never become knowledge, and the entire process is inimical to wisdom.

Btw, did you know that on one study of cable TV viewers ardent Fox News viewers knew LESS about the world than people who watched no news at all? Or that by far most Fox news content is decided on based on what the viewers WANT to hear?

[angrychair]

105. My premise is factually based

My statement about her concept of "dead broke" was backed up by a reliable source, quoting her own words. Don't know about you but I have been "dead broke" and no one was loaning me almost $3 million to buy a home.
I know she came back much latter on and walked back some of that but only because it didn't tract with the public image she is trying to sell.

Read my post here, it is meant to be my final word on this Sanders vs. Clinton thing.

[Hortensis]

106. Final word sounds good.

[Armstead]

21. Meh...David Brooks and a bunch of fusty old and young centrists

[eastwestdem]

44. Agreed!! nt

[NWCorona]

12. If anything it would be Windows XP Pro

the best OS to come out of MS.

[JonLeibowitz]

14. Reccing. This is hilarious.

[okasha]

15. oh, ouch!

Though I might go with "Sanders is the Commodore 64" of progressive politics.

[DCBob]

17. Even better!!

[PJMcK]

37. Or the Vic-20 (n/t)

[stevenleser]

51. I would say Radio Shack TRS-80.

This was a computer that looked good and interesting in the store, but couldn't really do anything, but a lot of people bought it.

[hobbit709]

57. then Hillary is the TI 99/4A.

[Fumesucker]

59. Nah, Hillary is an Altair 8800

[hobbit709]

62. That worked way better than a TI.

TI's problem was that they wanted to make everything proprietary, software and hardware wise, so they could maximize their profit margin. sound familiar?

[-none]

84. I remember that computer.

That row of switches across the front were used to program it so it was smart enough to boot from a teletype tape.
One mistake and you started all over on a multi-page check list. Oh the fun back then.

[stevenleser]

72. Nope, she is actually capable of carrying out the things she promises. nt

[hobbit709]

78. The only thing I see her doing is what she's done all along for her $pon$or$.

[reflection]

103. I liked my TI-99/4A.

And I loved my Commodore 64. I miss my old computers from my childhood.

[Armstead]

20. Meh -- New America -- David Brooks, Farhid Zakaria, Steve Rattner...

[QC]

38. Lots of corporate "education reform" propaganda, too.

Kevin Carey, the resident education "scholar," is the worst writer on the subject in America. He's the one who thinks we should "unbundle" high ed and just let the proles take some online courses. (People whose dads have lucrative gigs at corporate propaganda mills like New America will, presumably, go to elite schools.)

They're a front group for outfits like Gates and Sallie Mae.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

22. If Sanders is Windows 95 what's Hillary? An abacus, slide-rule, and quill pen?

She's to progressive what Twinkies are to nutrition.

[Armstead]

26. LOL

[cherokeeprogressive]

34. MS-DOS at best.

[840high]

41. Good one.

[aikoaiko]

45. I think of her more as the ILOVEYOU virus.

[B Calm]

48. Who knows? She still trying to figure out that email thing.

[NorthCarolina]

79. What Windows version was it that used a cloth to delete files? That would be the Hillary version.

eom

[Jim Lane]

91. True, but she'll be running against cuneiform marks on clay tablets. (n/t)

[Lucinda]

28. That was a good read. Thank you!

[AgingAmerican]

33. Sanders is definitely Linux

Something akin to Debian

[k8conant]

40. or Mac.

[GeorgeGist]

35. and the bitterness continues.

[ucrdem]

36. More like the Amiga Pro

Good at running a couple of games but only works in one device.

[PowerToThePeople]

39. Best insurgent campaign in a generation.

Hillarian's are hilarious.

[Number23]

42. Judging by the number of endorsements from his colleagues and the votes he got from Democrats

Calling him the Windows 95 of politics may be too good of a compliment.

Not only did the vast majority of Dems -- both in Congress and regulars -- support Hillary but even Dem think tanks thought Sanders' ideas were farfetched, poorly thought out and completely unimplementable. He's like the MySpace of politics.

[Eric J in MN]

53. Reagan got more votes than Carter or Mondale

...so Reagan must have had better ideas?

[Number23]

97. Obviously a hell of a lot more people thought so. And Reagan is still viewed among conservatives

as some sort of demi-God, 30 years later.

Sanders' own colleagues in the Senate -- including the members of the Progressive and Black Caucuses -- wouldn't give him the time of day. Says it all.

[Eric J in MN]

98. Bernie Sanders is the only Senator in the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

The co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus endorsed Sanders and campaigned for him.

[Number23]

99. The Progressive Caucus also encompasses Congress. And many of those members came nowhere near him

[Eric J in MN]

46. HRC is the one who won't change with the times and

...advocate
- free tuition
- an end to the death penalty and mandatory minimums
- legalizing marijuana

[Cobalt Violet]

47. Just another "No We Can't" opinion.

[Fumesucker]

52. It doesn't really matter, Hillary wouldn't know how to read her email on it anyway

[AntiBank]

60. article is shit, advocates wonky neoliberal 3rd way crap

especially odious is the spurious attack on Glass-Steagall as outdated

[NorthCarolina]

83. This entire site will become reflective of that political mindset come the 20th. -nt-

[Gomez163]

64. More like a Commodore 64

[hobbit709]

66. That proves you know little about computer history.

[Gomez163]

88. OK, Sparky

[CanadaexPat]

71. Ageism is funny!

[NurseJackie]

86. And so is hypersensitivity.

[Surya Gayatri]

74. Massive K & R. Thanks for posting.

[blackspade]

77. Is the NYT the Windows 3.1 of Journalism?

What an idiotic opinion piece.
Ridiculously full of shit.

[hobbit709]

87. More like CP/M

[lumberjack_jeff]

90. The NYT wishes all these kids would get with the modern times.

I'm convinced that the writers for most media have been replaced by artificial stupidity programs.

[uponit7771]

94. +1, the Windows 95 version rarely spoke to PoC issues as separate issues