Bernie's Proposals Will Get Us To Clinton's Proposals, Maybe Further

I came across this article today, which is a tough, fair look at Bernie's proposals. I highly recommend you take a look, especially if you're a Bernie fanatic. As much as I agree with his ideas, as you'll see in this article, he has some details to hash-out for us, to say the least.

That being said perhaps a candidate's ideas, not speculation of whether their ideas will ever come to fruition, is the criteria on which we should base our vote. I don't believe for a minute that campaign promises will be accomplished. It seems to me they are less promises and more insights into what a candidate considers ideal. One can tell a lot from another person's utopia, be that a country of gun-slinging multi-millionaire cowboys with no federal government, no taxes, no minorities, and Jesus Christ plastered atop our American flag. Or, an America with considerable taxes, a huge federal government, and considerable public benefits; one with no monstrous corporations or insurance companies or big banks or risky stock market gambling. Or, finally, a middle of the road, inured continuation of business as usual with a few tweaks to avoid a global calamity or a public uprising. In case that was too subtle, that last "utopia" belongs to Hillary.

Clinton's proposals, while more probably achieved, say a lot about what she'll be like as a leader. If she loses, it will be due to a lack of dreaming and reaching. Shoot for the middle, get the middle. No one is inspired by achievable. No one grows up dreaming of being middle-management and taking home an average salary to their affordable house and taking affordable vacations with someone they married because they were tired of looking for a perfect match. Is this where a lot of people end up? Sure. But you can't shoot for that. You can't make that the goal. Hillary Clinton is running in a primary against a revolutionary politician proposing huge changes with sky-high rhetoric for the second time in a decade and she appears to be making all the same mistakes. She's going to have to go beyond the achievable as a campaign promise. Bernie is saying, "Let's do an Ironman together!" Hillary's response can't remain, "Yeah, right. How about a Turkey Trot?"

No one is going to bad-mouth Bernie if he doesn't get us single-payer universal healthcare or free college, or any of the other big benefits he's promising, so long as he tries. Maybe he only ends up making some steps forward on the Affordable Care Act, but that's all Clinton is even proposing. No one is going to vote for that. It's uninspired. Maybe he doesn't get us free college tuition but gets us to a debt-free college tuition. Again, that's Clinton's plan. No one is going to vote for that when the other guy is pitching free tuition brought to you by the assholes who destroyed our economy and then demanded we save them from going under and taking the world with them--the same people who have been pulling down record profits and paying themselves obscene bonuses throughout The Great Recession instead of giving back to the people who bailed them out. Maybe Bernie's plans only get us to Clinton's plans, but maybe they get us a little further, and regardless of the details or the achievability of his vision, isn't that worth voting for to find out?