Some of us Sanders supporters have plenty of perspective. I have had the experience of watching the Dems elect both Clinton and Obama, and seeing them bargain away, or attempt to bargain away, most of the social programs that progressives hold dear. Clinton signed Glass- Steagall, which was passed with the bipartisan support of DLC centrists in the Senate, and which has proved to be disastrously foolish. With Glass-Steagall in place, we had NO bank collapses in for fifty years. Without it … we all remember 2007, I believe. Clinton signed lesgislation, also bipartisans thanks to Dem centrists, which dismantled important anti-poverty programs and which cast millions of Americans into poverty. He also signed “get tough on crime” legislation, also bipartisanly supported, which made America a sort of horrifying laughingstock to the rest of the world, with the highest incarceration rate of any country. His single really progressive “achievement” was a totally botched attempt to get universal health care passed.
Woo-hoo.
Then we got Obama, who DID manage to get an ATTEMPT at universal heath care passed, using a plan developed by a Republican think tank and first put into use by Mitt Romney. The plan did nothing to control medical costs or displace our expensive medical insurers, of course. Big Pharma, the insurance companies, doctors and hospitals are still riding high on the hog. And of course, Obama has ATTEMPTED more … he TRIED to get Republicans to accept cuts in Social Security as part of a “Grand Bargain” with them on financial issues. But they were so blind stupid mad that they wouldn’t go for it. And he once bragged that he OFFERED the Republicans 90 percent of what they wanted in his initial negotiation with them. Does this sound like honest negotiation? Would you think someone who had gone to a used car salesman and offered him 90 percent of his asking price at the first go-round was doing a good job of negotiating.
Now, Obama has not accomplished a lot else during his administration, and you can chalk some of that up to wilful obstructionism, but I also haven’t seen a lot of TRYING to pass progressive policies out of Obama. He just doesn’t seem INTERESTED, you know?
And what I HAVE seen in EVERY election, is hearfelt, passionate declaration by Slacker and others like him that THIS election matters more than any other EVER has, that letting the Republicans take the White House would DESTROY the United States or at least the Democratic Party, and also … BOOGAH BOOGAH!
So, yah, I got some perspective. It ain’t a pretty one. And thing is, I am WILLING to vote for the Dem candidate, if I believed there was a chance in hell they’d realize their progressive base is pissed and they should really think about appeasing them.
Not seeing it. Certainly not seeing it here. And I REALLY like Jill Stein. So for the moment, I’m just hoping Bernie wins. Because even if he CAN’T get progressive legislation passed in the teeth of a Republican Congress, I know he’ll do something that a centrist wouldn’t … he’ll at least TRY. And who knows, he might succeed here and there. Beats all the nothing the centrists have shown me.