I don’t have any doubt that Bernie would be a good President, but his plan to rally Americans to put enough pressure on congress that they start voting progressive is just ridiculous. I honestly don’t understand how anyone is even talking like it is in the realm of possibility.
There is no possible way that Bernie is going to rally conservatives to pressure their senators and representatives to start voting progressive. And if Bernie hasn’t noticed, the right doesn’t give a flying fuck what the rest of the country wants. 67% of Americans could support single payer and it won’t matter, because there are 50 states and those 67% are not evenly distributed among them. There is no possible way that red states are going to be pressured into supporting progressive policy. Hell, there’s no way that moderate states are going to be pressured into supporting progressive policy.
Bernie’s entire plan to deliver progress is based on getting people who are so self destructive that they are going to nominate Donald Trump for President to support or at least get out of Bernie’s way. I don’t know how anyone is thinking that this country is not only willing to accept, but just waiting to rally around progressive policies after the last 7 years of the left steadily losing the house and then the senate to the right who have accomplished nothing but obstruction of even normal government business.
Look, I will openly admit to being an incrementalist. But I am always open to jumping at the opportunity to take a leap forward. But it has to be a realistic opportunity. A plan to rally Americans to put pressure on congress to vote progressive is as realistic as a plan to rally fans for one team at the super bowl to put pressure on the other team to help their team win.
Obama might have been a bit naive to believe that he could win over moderates in congress to support common sense solutions, but Bernie is beyond naive to think that he can pressure congress to support progressive policies. It’s not just naive to believe that, it’s ridiculous.