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eridani

(51,907 posts)
Sat Mar 26, 2016, 10:21 PM Mar 2016

The Sanders Campaign’s Views On Creating Radical Change Are Quite Realistic

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/25/sanders-campaigns-views-creating-radical-change-are-quite-realistic

However, the Sanders campaign does not appeal to citizens’ anger. That is what the campaigns of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz do. They turn the anger of working class Americans against people of color and against what little social progress President Barack Obama has achieved in terms of health insurance reform, financial reform, and stabilizing the United States economy.

The Sanders campaign appeals to a collective desire among Americans to live in a nation that does right by its people. It invites Americans to imagine a country where policies are enacted that reflect the notion that we are all in this together. It raises expectations, giving poor, working class, and middle class Americans hope for a society structured like other industrialized democracies of the world, where universal single-payer healthcare, paid family medical leave, free tuition at public colleges and universities, and other social welfare programs are available to all citizens.

Responding to how numerous people see Sanders as “authentic,” Wenner praises what he calls another kind of “authenticity, which may not feel as good but is vitally important.” He describes this “authenticity” as the ability of Clinton to speak “honestly about what change really requires, about incremental progress, about building on what Obama has achieved in the arenas of health care, clean energy, the economy, the expansion of civil rights.”

This is not honesty, and there is nothing authentic about it. It is what Democratic Party politicians, who are of the establishment, do in order to manage expectations for change and contain social movements. Such politicians rely on the tyranny of low expectations in order to maintain the status quo so there is no threat to their political power.

The Democratic Party establishment has a way of doing business. It does not involve depending on millions of people to donate an average of twenty-seven dollars per person in order to fund their election campaigns. It does not involve going into arenas or stadiums to gather the masses to encourage a popular uprising against wealth inequality and corporate power. It involves dialing for dollars from major corporations and special interests, who they pledge to protect from any significant social upheaval.
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The Sanders Campaign’s Views On Creating Radical Change Are Quite Realistic (Original Post) eridani Mar 2016 OP
K&R..... daleanime Mar 2016 #1
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