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Sanders Pushes Harris to Pursue Agenda That 'Speaks to the Needs of the Working Class'. (www.commondreams.org)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/news

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[–] worldwidewave 329 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Sanders, who competed against both Harris and Biden in the 2020 Democratic primary, said in Monday's interview that he wants Harris to make clear that "it is not acceptable that 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck while the billionaire class has never, ever had it so good."

"It's not acceptable," Sanders continued, "that we've got millions of seniors who can't afford dental care, hearing aids, eyeglasses, that we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on Earth, and almost all of the new wealth and income is going to the people on top."

While the facts have worsened over the years, Bernie really has never changed. I credit him with Biden moving to the left in his presidency and I’m excited to see him work with Harris.

[–] NewWorldOverHere 26 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I hear Bernie’s voice and cadence when reading the quote.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

I always imagine his little orchestra-conducting hand movements.

[–] Lemming6969 18 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Harris needs to skewer the Republicans with the dirtiest shit imaginable that Sanders isn't remotely capable of being, and then be normal after the win.

The issues Sanders cares about are important to resolve long term, but they will not win the election.

[–] [email protected] 75 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

People really need to drop this Insistence that progressive/leftist shit won't win an election. Even with Trumpism as the alternative, dems can't get a leg up because they think chasing trumpers further right will flip them - but trumpers are trump loyalists and even "normal" Republicans are all in. There's no votes for dems there, but they've completely lost their potential base playing this game. Nobody votes because our options are corporate far right or corporate mid right.

If Dems want to mobilize apathetic voters, bring the left vote in, AND flip some "traditional Republicans," they need to run on those policies that are largely popular like M4A and run a candidate with a track record of fighting for more progressive shit that people dont think will drop it all on day 1 like every other dem.

The problem is dems will take Trump over moving an inch to the left 10/10 times.

[–] roguetrick 17 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

If anything, it's been proven time and time again that centrism doesn't win elections. Centrism is a strategy where you adopt it and hope your opponents just fuck up horribly. You're certainly not out to create a platform for change or chase votes. See the recent UK election for an example, the Tories collapsed but in actual numbers labour gained almost no ground. That's almost an impressive amount of walking in a victory.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

[–] HurlingDurling 15 points 5 months ago (2 children)

The issues Sanders cares about are important to resolve long term, but they will not win the election.

But would get a very large portion of voters interested enough to vote in Nov. Lately most people in both sides (except MAGAs, them too braindead) is they are tired that the elite control everything, and while the Harris campaign might not turn the majority of Republicans, it may get the centrist and left energized that there might actually be change coming and vote.

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[–] TheDemonBuer 96 points 5 months ago (4 children)

If Harris becomes president, the number one thing I want from her is to listen to the experts. I want her to listen to climate experts, public health experts, economic experts, etc. I think Democrats are generally better than Republicans at listening to and following the advice of experts, so I think she will meet this requirement.

However, there can be peril in this, as the experts don't always agree on everything and aren't always objective. For instance, one of the preeminent economists of the mid to late 20th century was Milton Friedman, who argued that just about everything the government did was bad. His opinions about deregulation, tax cuts, privatization, etc, became gospel, and then policy. We are living with the effects of that gospel and those policies today.

I am certain that Friedman believed his ideology would result in the best outcomes for the largest number of people. I don't for a minute believe he thought his policies would hurt people or make them worse off. But while economists (or any experts, really) like Friedman may have had the best of intentions, what they lacked was a willingness to be wrong. This is the true weakness of ideologues, and why they can make for poor scientists.

We don't only need leaders who listen to experts, we need experts who can see beyond their own ideological biases, and rely on evidence and data instead of belief. If we can achieve this, I think many things will improve in the United States.

[–] Jaderick 47 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I refuse to believe economists have the best of intentions in mind when they write in absolutes lol. Too many refuse to factor human costs and irrationality into their calculations, Friedman being one of main examples.

I’m sure there are economists that do, but the few I’ve spoken to talk about people abstractly and as expendables.

[–] DogWater 20 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

Yeah it's batshit that an economist won a nobel prize for his theory that people don't act 100% rationally so that's why economic models were failing to predict reality.

Like, I'm sure it wasn't obvious and I'm not trying to sound like I'm smarter than economists, but holy fuck duh

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

My economics teacher would publicly fellate Alan Greenspan in class. Cue the subprime mortgage crisis and Mr Greenspan is out there going "I didn't account for bankers being stupid and greedy."

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Hahaha that's fantastic! Do you remember who it was? I'd love to read about this....

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

duckduckgo'd: 'economist won a nobel prize for his theory that people don’t act 100% rationally so that’s why economic models were failing' results was this:(theconversation(dot)com link), so I guess Richard Thaler is who you're looking for.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

It's even worse than that it's not even just the irrationally that's unaccounted for. It's also that people rationally optimize for variables that are disregarded. Neoclassical economics takes obviously falsifiable assumptions as axioms. It's brutally stupid shit. No amount of numbers attached to it would make it work if those axioms are wrong. Yet it's been used to enact major economic policy all over the world. Including "shock therapy" that got applied to many countries around the world, such as my country of origin where that led to dramatic drop in GDP, standard of living, life expectancy, more than a decade of poverty and a 20% population exodus. People like to badmouth Psychology as a shit science, boy, Psychologists check their results a lot more than these folks.

[–] DogWater 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It's like people are the ones doing the things that create an economy so economists should be integrating the study of human psychology into economic theory.

Which, to the credit of the discipline seems to be happening finally (at least more than it was in the past).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Oh yes. But more generally there's a significant need for empiricism. Not just on the psychology of the economic individual. For example the fact that MMT's empirical observations of reality aren't mainstream yet is staggering. If empiricism was a mainstay or economics, these observations would have been tested and accepted if not falsified in the 90s or 2000s. Yet you have a country like the UK devastated by austerity following the great recession because that didn't happen.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

I refuse to believe economists have the best of intentions in mind when they write in absolutes

The same can be said for most professions when they think in terms of absolutes.

The world isn't binary, and treating it in those terms almost always creates worse outcomes.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Joseph Stiglitz

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This kind of technocratic approach can sound great and it’s always good to have policy and positions formed by those most knowledgeable in the relevant field. The problem is that the “experts” that will likely have her ear will be the ones that are vetted and approved by the power elite, the wealthiest in this country who will largely recommend what is best to protect their privilege, wealth and position.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

When I learned about him I was surprised that a big part of Friedman's ideology was the Negative Income Tax. A form of Universal Basic Income. That would have made a big difference if that was implemented also.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I want her to listen to climate experts

Yep!

public health experts

Yep!

economic experts

You lost me.

Economics is just political economy somehow supposedly divorced from politics.

The economics Nobel prize is not even a “real” Nobel prize. No kidding, look it up.

[–] TheDemonBuer 2 points 5 months ago

The economics Nobel prize is not even a “real” Nobel prize. No kidding, look it up.

I know. Believe me, I have had my issues with the field of economics. But, who else should our elected officials seek guidance from on economic issues? The only alternative seems to be choosing some heterodox economic ideology and forming policies based on those unproven theories. Do we know if those theories, when put into practice, will make people's lives better or worse? Is it ethical to make the American people guinea pigs in an experiment to find out? I don't think so.

[–] [email protected] 91 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I like that Sanders treats Harris just like he has treated every other political colleague.

And I hope that Harris awakens every day happy to have Bernie on her side.

[–] gAlienLifeform 61 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

In a separate interview Monday with CNN's Anderson Cooper, Sanders said he is "sure" he will ultimately endorse Harris for the Democratic nomination but stressed that he wants to see her put forth an agenda "that speaks to the long-neglected needs of working families," specifically calling for a permanent expansion of the child tax credit and an increase in the stagnant federal minimum wage.

"I just want to make sure that her campaign understands that for too many people in this country, when they look at Washington, D.C., they feel ignored. They feel insulted that people are not understanding what is going on in their lives," said Sanders. "Life expectancy for working-class people is 10 years shorter than it is for the rich. And working-class people want a government that represents them and not corporate America."

This is all good stuff for people who like Bernie and for people who like Kamala, remind Kamala/give her the opportunity to remind everyone else she supported Medicare for All in the 2020 primaries and was willing to get into specifics

She's willing to go along with moderates when that's what the teams she's on has already decided (see; her time as California AG dealing with a moderate governor, her time as a VP dealing with Biden), but when she's starting from square one she looks left for support. She's not my favorite Dem ever, but she's absolutely someone we can work with.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

Biden managed to get a bunch of unions to endorse him for the elections, both due to negotiations and his policy. Given that Kamala was in his team, the only thing she needs is the will to declare that she will continue along Biden's lines.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 5 months ago (6 children)

Honestly, I really like Harris, but I'd still prefer Sanders.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

A Sanders/Harris ticket (in either order) would have been great for people like me but I don't think it would fly with much of the US

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

It’s kinda wild but I really like that idea. Socialistic ideologies moderated by a person who understands law and nuance surrounding it. Could be good for America.

[–] chiliedogg 8 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I love Bernie, but he's even older than Biden, who is dropping out due to concerns over his age.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

Yeah, Bernie definitely shouldn't run, but I mean policy-wise I like Sanders a bit better.

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[–] xantoxis 30 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Something I learned yesterday: Statistically, Harris' voting record is closer to Sanders than anyone else's record.

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[–] verdantbanana 25 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

we the people still have one voice left fighting for us

Sanders was arrested at a protest against segregation while at the same time Biden was fighting for segregation in the 70s

choice of who to support as leaders was clear then and should be just as clear today

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago

Yeah, it should be clear... It's Kamala Harris. That's who we need to support. Bernie isn't running, and neither is Biden. I love Bernie, but we need to support the Nominee, not let perfect be the enemy of good.

With that said, I hope she listens to him and advances administration goals to actually improve people's lives.

[–] EvilEyedPanda 22 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

America's stance has been "fuck the working class" since the 80's at this point I'd love to see anyone try

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago

Before it's too late

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

I am once again asking you not to be a dick.

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