"IT'S NOT ABOUT BERNIE, IT'S ABOUT US!"

[BainsBane]

29. If it weren't about Bernie, we would hear about the issue rather than Bernie

There were dozens of co-sponsors of that bill, but the singular focus--as always--is Bernie. If people were genuinely interested in building coalitions necessary to pass legislation, they wouldn't insist on using the issue to divide the party and advance one man's career. That author would have simply talked about the legislation. The many threads this year would have been about the issue. Instead, the singular focus has been to promote Bernie, whereas Bernie himself announced his tour to promote the bill with a letter declaring the Democratic Party as the opposition, the "establishment" standing in the way of single payer. This despite the fact the author of the House bill is a Democratic, the very sort of Democrat Bernie has dismissed as "establishment." When people want to pass legislation, they don't begin by attacking the very people who vote for the bill.

For all the lectures we hear about being nice to Trump voters, not insulting them, etc., NONE of that is extended to Democratic politicians or Democratic voters.

None of that is consistent with the goal of passing legislation. Nor is the fact the bill contains no numbers regarding costs and how much taxes would need to be raised to pay for single payer. That shows that the bill wasn't written with the purpose of becoming law. Then there is fact there is zero attention to how to get GOP congressional leadership to bring a single payer and instead used as an opportunity to attack Democratic lawmakers.

If people ever decide they do care about universal healthcare, they will discuss it as an issue rather than using it to justify factional division. Someone will also write legislation capable of becoming law. We would see people discuss what a single payer system would look like rather than insisting anyone who dared to ask questions was the enemy. Refusal to take legislation or discussion of the issue seriously is not consistent with actually enacting single payer healthcare.

People make it about Bernie because the goal is to advance Bernie. As long as they do so, they undermine support.

Oh, and if Bernie is serious about healthcare becoming a right, he needs to organize a constitutional amendment campaign because rights in our system are protected by the Constitution, not legislation.