No We Can’t, Without a Revolution: Why Bernie Sanders Is More of a Realist Than Barack Obama

[Mufaddal]

Obama believed in us, as we are. He was a young candidate. His tenure in politics had been relatively short. He had a revitalizing naïveté about him. “Yes, we can” stood for: Yes, we can make our politics work. Yes, we can work inside this box to make them happen together.

It was a powerful message, and it was necessary to pave the way for Bernie Sanders’ message, which is, “No, we can’t. Unless we transform the system.”

Sanders, unlike Obama, is bluntly calling for a political revolution. He is not working around the faults in our system, but laying them bare. The type of change Sanders is using to woo voters doesn’t stay inside our current political box. It is appealing because it tosses that box in the dumpster. And it would not have resonated without Obama’s “Yes, we can” going first and showing us the limits of what is possible within our current constraints.

If voters heed this call, if we elect Bernie Sanders as our next president, we know it must also go beyond “the Bern.” A president cannot overthrow core tenets of rotten policy without the political muscle of Congress. As we gear up to vote, we must remember that we’re voting not for one day, or for one year. We tried to let a president do it by himself. This time, we need to give the president not only the White House but a Congress to work with. Because no, we can’t. Not right now.

Full article: http://inthesetimes.com/article/18931/no-we-cant-bernie-sanders-is-more-of-a-realist-than-obama

[MisterP]

1. right--the Obama campaign was about Obama, not any of the things he promised

we were told he had a magic wand, and then they turned around and said "we never said he had a magic wand": the Movement was dismantled, demobilized, sent home, veal-penned, reduced to the usual cogs (votes, money, phone-banking, van-driving)

[Jarqui]

2. Obama did ask for our help - several times

He stated he couldn't do it alone Things like "We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

Unfortunately, we lost sight of that and didn't deliver enough of a mandate after two years.

Although some might argue we don't deserve it after blowing it with Obama, to me, Bernie is offering another kick at that can.

Even if Bernie falls short (I hope he doesn't), his candidacy has shone some more light in the direction we must go if we want real change.

[thereismore]

4. Obama was hit with a shit of an economy. He did his best to salvage it. There was no time

nor appetite for a political revolution. Remember Occupy? I love Obama but his job was exceedingly difficult and somewhere in that process he lost us, the people. Still, Obama is a great President.

[Jarqui]

5. I too think he's been wonderful. He burnt a lot of political capital on

Obamacare but saved tens of thousands of Americans each year since from that alone.

He inherited a heck of a mess. And they gave them very flawed numbers on the job losses when they were trying to calculate the stimulus - that hurt the recovery a lot as well.

Obama himself takes some responsibility because he went for getting his policies implemented and forgot to keep the people up to speed and on side.

I blame us more than him. Moses went up the mountain to get the 10 commandments and we lost our way (not that I'm very religious). To expect Obama to clean up 8 years of mess (really more when you consider some of this mess was Bill Clintons from NAFTA and deregulation) was a little much. But that's what folks thought. And folks also forgot or weren't listening when he said "we" have to make the change - he cannot do it alone.

[thereismore]

3. Yes, Bernie is Obama's political legacy. nt