“Assuming if there's such a thing as reality, if you have a false relationship with it, how can you do anything but fail?”
Jordan Peterson
The Democratic Party, and its “progressives” in particular, are on a course to repeat their 1972 and 1988 presidential debacles!
Sounding like a liberal version of Donald Trump and preaching a populist message, Bernie Sanders has convinced thousands of early primary voters they have been left behind by their party, society and government and that radical changes are the only answer.
Worse is his (and Elizabeth Warren’s) mantra that any disagreement with his vision is tantamount to not caring about “working” people or America.
Sanders promises to radically restructure our economy and social infrastructure while delivering millions of new, high-paying jobs. Yet, he has never created any private sector jobs nor has he had to worry about a responsible budget not funded by taxpayers.
When asked about his programs’ costs, Sanders mumbles and quickly changes the subject; suggesting he either does not know or is terrified to give a straight answer.
Several estimates on the costs of Sander’s proposed programs;
Medicate-for-All: $34 Trillion
Universal Child Care and Kindergarten and Paid Medical Leave: $3.5 Trillion
Student Loan Forgiveness and Free Public College Tuition: $2 Trillion
Infrastructure and New Affordable Housing: $3.5 Trillion
Raising Social Security Benefits: $0.3 Trillion
Green New Deal: $16.3 Trillion
Together, they total a whopping $60 TRILLION in incremental spending over ten years or $6-plus TRILLION a year.
Putting that figure in in perspective, the nation’s 2020 federal budget is just shy of $4.7 trillion. Of that figure, nearly half is committed to Social Security, Interest on the country’s $23 Trillion national debt and funding of the Defense, Justice, State and other federal departments. Remember too, this budget is running more than $1 trillion in red ink.
Even if successful in reversing the Trump tax breaks and enacting some of his more draconian wealth and other corporate tax initiatives, new revenues won’t come close to covering the incremental cost of his programs.
His signature Medicare-for-All program runs a huge exposure for Democrats as 150 million Americans with negotiated health care programs, most who like and want to keep them, are simply not going to vote for any candidate advocating to eliminate their private insurance. Moreover, many of these folks live in places like Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Maryland … must win states for Democrats in 2020.
Entering the South Carolina and Super Tuesday primaries as the “frontrunner”, if successful in winning a number of those states, Sander’s delegate lead might become insurmountable. However, despite his hand waving and ranting about the evils of “millionaires” (remember, he’s one of them) and “billionaires”, his programs are unlikely to attract significant numbers of moderate Democratic, Independent and other non-aligned voters, particularly in swing states that cost Hillary an electoral college victory in 2016.
Trump must be salivating over the prospect of a Sanders nomination.
Heading to the ballot boxes over the next week, Democratic voters face a possibly gut-wrenching decision; ideological purity versus pragmatic electability.
Will voting for a progressive candidate pushing for perceive but absurdly expensive “free” health, education and other benefits or selecting a “moderate” nominee with a more incremental and less radical agenda to reverse the Trump legacy give the party the best chance of winning the White House in 2020.
Nominating the wrong candidate will guarantee four more years of Donald Trump, likely resulting in Republicans retaining the Senate and possibly recapturing the House. Then Trump’s ability to appoint more conservative federal judges and one or more justices to the Supreme Court would become a reality as would his continuing assault on our democracy and system of checks-and-balances.
Democratic voters should seriously reflect on the failed campaigns of George McGovern and Michael Dukakis before casting their ballots.
