2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: So I called Bernie's campaign last night [View all]PatrickforO
(14,577 posts)thing. People who go to Washington prepared to govern have a set of values that aren't negotiable; they will negotiate up the these and then stop. Basically, what I'm saying is that everything isn't relative. Everything isn't subject to change when the wind seems to be blowing the other direction.
Now, I'm for Bernie because his actions over many years consistently point to a set of core beliefs that he isn't willing to compromise on.
Secretary Clinton just doesn't seem to me to have this kind of set of values.
This is readily illustrated by an interaction Bernie Sanders had with Hillary Clinton back in 1993. The following is an excerpt from a Politico article by Ben Schreckinger:
In February, Sanders requested a meeting with Hillary, to bring in two Harvard Medical School physicians who have written on the Canadian system, according to the records of the administrations task force. Those physicians were Stephanie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein, leading advocates for single-payer health care.
They got their meeting at the White House that month, and the two doctors laid out the case for single-payer to the first lady. She said, You make a convincing case, but is there any force on the face of the earth that could counter the hundreds of millions of the dollars the insurance industry would spend fighting that? recalled Himmelstein. And I said, How about the president of the United States actually leading the American people? and she said, Tell me something real.
See, this is exactly the kind of thing I have a problem with about Clinton, because what this tells me is that money can scare her out of doing the right thing. Regrettably, that just isn't good enough for me. I want single payer. I want expanded Social Security. I want my grandchildren to be able to get ahead through attending free college - sure they'll have to work to support themselves; no reason to give them anything on a silver platter, but they won't be buried under obscene piles of debt when they get done, either. And I want a vigorous, uncompromising approach to climate change, because if we don't aggressively address it, and right now, all the rest of what these politicians want is moot.
Lastly, I'll say that I'm very disappointed in Clinton for joining the so-called bipartisan effort to give the executive branch MORE war powers. Our founders put war powers with Congress for a very good reason, because it would allow vigorous and exhaustive debate before we put 'boots on the ground' somewhere. Giving more of that power up to a President, any President is going in the wrong direction.