Politically I think Sanders is a much weaker general candidate if he were to win, and even if he doesn't he keeps forcing Clinton left which also hurts her.
BUT, the fact that people are willing to vote for an admitted socialist is deeply troubling.
This country has lost its way. The focus on "equality" and "social justice" sounds great, but was I the only person who read Animal Farm in school?
let's be clear: socialism is the opposite of the reasons this nation was founded. "social justice" is focused on outcome, not opportunity, on keeping all the trees in the forest the same versus letting each person pursue their goals their way and be responsible for the results.
Moreover, it centralizes power, whereas democratic capitalism decentralizes power, which returns us to the state approved system that our forefathers came here to escape.
There has from the beginning been a percentage of people in this country that want us to be like Europe. From the Loyalists who wanted to stay part of England through to today, it seems about one third of this country is dead set on dragging us back to European ideals of social engineering, whether it was the Divine Right of Kings 250 years ago or the equally engineered and state controlled socialism of today.
I guess this isn't worse than McGovern, but it's still depressing. But strategically it's good b/c going too far left or right is a sure way to not win an election, and Bernie is forcing Clinton to be way far left.
I will also add that if the GOP wasn't a rudderless ship of establishment fat white guys they'd see the huge opportunity to appeal to a LOT of Democrats out there who are not leftists. There are still a number of blue collar middle of the road Americans who are registered and think of themselves as Democrats, but since Obama won the national DNC has become as leftist and extreme as it ever was during the McGovern years.
There are a lot of FDR type Democrats out there who believe in some kind of safety net but don't believe in "from each according to ability, to each according to need" being enforced at the point of a gun.
in fact the only thing that keeps the GOP from expanding is finding a compromise on social issues, b/c there are a lot of fairly libertarian folks out there and traditional Democrats who are being marginalized by the left. Plenty of folks to win elections if we can find a way to work together.
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