The Wash Post has thrown down the gauntlet today.
They are sick and tired of the “fiction” being spread by Bernie Sanders that we can clean up Wall Street, get to Single Payer, and address economic inequality.
Mr. Sanders’s tale starts with the bad guys: Wall Street and corporate money. The existence of large banks and lax campaign finance laws explains why working Americans are not thriving, he says, and why the progressive agenda has not advanced. Here is a reality check: Wall Street has already undergone a round of reform, significantly reducing the risks big banks pose to the financial system. The evolution and structure of the world economy, not mere corporate deck-stacking, explained many of the big economic challenges the country still faces. And even with radical campaign finance reform, many Americans and their representatives would still oppose the Sanders agenda.
And all that talk of cutting the profits out of healthcare for Big Insurance is pure hogwash.
He would be a braver truth-teller if he explained how he would go about rationing health care like European countries do. His program would be more grounded in reality if he addressed the fact of chronic slow growth in Europe and explained how he would update the 20th-century model of social democracy to accomplish its goals more efficiently. Instead, he promises large benefits and few drawbacks.
Bezos would prefer the Democrats just get on with choosing a candidate who is friendly to big business and will stay within the boundaries that have been set by our capitalist overlords. All this talk of economic justice will simply not fly. The billionaire owners our our media system will make sure of that.
This self-regarding analysis implies a national consensus favoring his agenda when there is none and ignores the many legitimate checks and balances in the political system that he cannot wish away.
Full editorial at Washington Post.