
Bernie Sanders: Democrats Need to Wake Up - aburan28
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/opinion/campaign-stops/bernie-sanders-democrats-need-to-wake-up.html
======
amluto
> The global economy is not working for the majority of people in our country
> and the world.

This is a cute bit of rhetorical fakery here. Bernie is argues that, globally,
the economy isn't working out for most people (in a real income sense and an
income inequality sense). It's a global problem so it seems to follow that the
"global economy" isn't working. Then he blames trade agreements, the basis of
the "global economy". Nice one!

Why exactly does he think that reducing free trade will help the lower income
percentiles? At best it will shift some money in lower-paying jobs around. How
about doing something really politically risky and trying to attack
income/wealth inequality directly? There's plenty of overall income (GDP) in
the US under current trade rules -- it's just not distributed in anywhere near
a way to maximize overall happiness or even overall ability to pay for basic
necessities.

Also, somehow, even after his last paragraph, he still refuses to say "vote
for Hilary". My respect for him is rapidly dwindling.

~~~
burkaman
This is a useful graph:
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2016/06/...](https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2016/06/wonk-
globalincome0625-1.jpg)

I think the argument is basically that free trade redistributes working class
incomes to the poorer countries that they trade with. I am not endorsing this
idea, I know nothing about economics, but I don't think I've seen another
explanation for this particular inequality.

~~~
toomuchtodo
[http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2015/12/09/459087477/...](http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2015/12/09/459087477/the-tipping-point-most-americans-no-longer-are-
middle-class)

> A just-released analysis of government data shows that as of 2015, middle-
> income households have become the minority. The trend is so firmly
> established that it may well continue; Americans have experienced "a
> demographic shift that could signal a tipping point," Pew researchers
> concluded Wednesday.

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forkandwait
I think there is a vacuum in US politics waiting for another real populist
movement. And it should be working on the base of local and state offices, as
well as building party machinery that transcends any single election. And it
should NOT be focused around Hail Mary presidential candidates like Bernie
until there is a network of democratic socialists in power somewhere besides
Vermont.

~~~
undersuit
That's part of Bernie's thing, even if he can't win the nomination he can put
a lot of populist candidates into government positions. It's one reason why he
hasn't stopped campaigning, he can use his campaign's money to finance
candidates in lower races.

~~~
intopieces
Where's the best place to find a list of the campaigns Sanders has moved his
money into? It would be interesting to see how those candidates line up with
his message. Since he raised money outside the DNC (much like Obama did) I'm
not sure exactly how those contributions are being measured.

------
hughdbrown
The only occurrence of "clin" in the article is in "decline." It's not like he
is going out of his way to specify who this person might be: "We need a
president who will vigorously support international cooperation that brings
the people of the world closer together, reduces hypernationalism and
decreases the possibility of war. We also need a president who respects the
democratic rights of the people, and who will fight for an economy that
protects the interests of working people, not just Wall Street, the drug
companies and other powerful special interests."

Is he still in the race or is he just trying to steer the Democratic party
policy?

~~~
toomuchtodo
> Is he still in the race or is he just trying to steer the Democratic party
> policy?

Both. There's a chance Clinton will still be indicted.

------
VLM
Coalition parties can't do revolutionary change due to divide and conqueror
strategies. Which is how the D party got taken over and co-opted into the
party solely representing the interests of the rich globalist corporate
establishment to begin with. This is not the democratic party of the 60s
radical hippies, this is an extremist form of Reaganomics hiding behind a
Hillary mask. So this aspect of his message is the tilting at windmills,
basically complaining about the inevitable and unavoidable result after things
are already in motion. The world series game pitch has been made and the ball
is in the air and all the complaining you do about strategic pitcher hiring
strategies in the off season or ticket sales in an abstract sense do not
matter when the bases loaded home run hit is already swinging. This would have
been a very timely strategy article in, oh, I donno, 1980. Its more like an
epitaph for the D party, in the current year.

Another major strategic error is you can't divert political momentum by saying
"we're gonna be just like the winner except way more boring, lower energy,
less controversial, and far less interesting". As a thought experiment, say
for the sake of argument you hate heavy metal music and want people to stop
following it because you're that kind of person. If you propose broadcasting
even more formulaic top 40 girlpop on a different station, that's really going
to excite the base of formulaic top 40 girlpop listeners. But the cool kids
listening to the heavy metal station are just going to laugh, have a good
time, the good time leads to more heavy metal listeners...

