Last night I had the good fortune of hearing Bill Clinton speak on behalf of Hillary in a tiny high school gym in Asheville, NC with maybe 200 other people. I was for Hillary when this thing started. Let's be honest, she's a powerhouse on economic issues, on foreign policy, on social issues. You name it and she can talk at length about the best way to deal with it. The problem is, like many other progressives, I feel like she is too centrist and perhaps too enmeshed in the world of money and politics to make sweeping change.
Thus, for the last several months I have been feeling the Bern big time. He speaks to my values and my hopes for America in a way that no other candidate has. I want more public options. Period. Because to me, the choice is between paying taxes and letting my democratically elected government (representatives of the people who can be voted out when they stop standing up for my best interests) set up programs that provide me and my family with healthcare, education, infrastructure, livable wages, retirement savings, high speed transportation, parental leave, greener energy, stricter regulations on those who would do us harm or take advantage of our vulnerabilities as middle and lower class citizens, etc; or, waiting around until billionaires decide it is in their best interest to provide these options to their workers, clients, or customers and even then do so at a price that gives those who can afford a better life insurmountable advantages over the rest of us. We have no control over the billionaire class and the private sector they control except through our government. Bernie seems to get this more than any American politician I've ever heard and is getting huge support for doing so. thus, I've been really excited about him.
Then, in steps Bill Clinton. First of all, holy moly is this man brilliant and insanely informed. When he speaks, it's like the entire world and its web of intersecting politics is sitting in his brain at all times and he's just picking and choosing which parts to explain to his current audience. Having him sitting in the White House residence (and no doubt the oval office a fair bit too) is a tremendous resource and reason enough to vote for Hillary. This aside, he also effectively dampened my hopes that Bernie's vision is anymore than that, a vision; not something that will ever get accomplished in the next eight years. He reminded me that he and Hillary also pushed for single-payer healthcare (by far my biggest issue in choosing a candidate this year) and couldn't overcome the Republican filibuster. Basically, it's just math; without 60 Democratic Senators in Congress, single-payer is dead on arrival. As he pointed out, this is why Obama's passing of the ACA (Obamacare) is so impressive. He got this passed despite Republicans having the option to filibuster, and as imperfect as it is (and it's imperfect; it had to be to get enough Republican support to pass it), it's the biggest step forward toward universal coverage that we've made since WWII. The problems with it are: A) Many people's plans are still covering too little and costing way too much, B) Just to tow the line of conservatives trying to make Obama look bad, many Republican governors are refusing to take free federal money to expand Medicaid in their states, and, C) Many young people (who are a big part of the ACA's functionality since they will pay into the system and use it the least) are opting to pay the fine for not signing up rather than pay out the nose for a plan.
So, healthcare is now available to everyone--insurance companies cannot deny people regardless of preexisting conditions, age, gender, etc, they have to cover more pre and post-natal care and many other things they wouldn't cover as of seven years ago--but that doesn't prevent insurance companies from passing the cost of the extra risk for covering all these new people and conditions on to their customers. Bernie says (as I believe) the ACA was a half measure and while commendable isn't hacking it. It's complicated as hell, it's a huge pain the ass for people to navigate, there's tons of information they're requesting annually to keep your subsidies, insurance companies are constantly changing and dropping plans , raising premiums, and reducing coverage, and it leaves many of us with an expensive plan that's better than nothing, but that's about it. Sanders wants to scrap the whole thing and expand Medicare to cover everyone and pay for it with tax increases, mainly on the wealthy, but a few percent higher on everyone else as well. I would like to see this happen. However, Bill Clinton just reminded me that not only will Bernie not have 60 Democratic Senators to break a Republican filibuster, the Senate will very likely still hold a Republican majority when he takes office. Thus, good idea, but not possible. Also, maybe not even a good idea based on a number of economists whom I have always respected when they've told me things I want to hear, but have been skeptical of recently because I want so badly for single-payer to be the silver bullet I believe it to be.
Hillary says, "Look, I believe in single-payer as well. I want us to get there when it's possible; I'm going to work with governors to try to get more states setting up their own single-payer plans; but, in the meantime, people need relief." I am one of those people. My wife and I currently pay about 15% of our after taxes income to healthcare. Hillary wants to increase subsidies up to $5000 per family to lessen the burden of out-of-pocket costs and premiums that go above 5% of a family's income while also amending the law so no family pays more than 8.5% of their income on healthcare costs. She wants to have the government negotiate lower prices with drug companies (as is done in every other country in the world--by the way, countries, who, all have single-payer universal healthcare plans that pay WAY less than we do per capita on healthcare costs); she claims she can work with Republican governors to incentivize the expansion of Medicaid in their state for lower income people; she'll invest in navigators, advertising, and outreach to get more people signed up, and more. Essentially, her plan is like wrapping a deep cut in gauze and applying pressure while pumping you full of pain-killers when the real fix would be to get a few stitches and be finished with it. Unfortunately, gauze and pain-killers are what's available for the time being. I'm mature enough to see and accept that.
Clinton's other plans as Bill articulated so well are similar in that they take what's currently happening and provide improvements, not complete overhauls. And some of her ideas are quite good. For instance, she wants to put 500 million new solar panels up around the country and power every home with clean energy in the next eight years. She wants to let every college grad refinance their student loans at current rates, make community college free and make changes (which are specific on her site, but too many and too complicated to explain well in debates and sound bites) that will in the end make college a debt-free experience. She wants to create jobs by investing in the ripping up of all the lead pipes nationwide that poisoning our drinking water; investing $275 billion in infrastructure over the next five years. Hillary Clinton really does have some great ideas, but they're complicated and piecemealed in a way that loses passionate progressives' interest. However, Bill Clinton laid them out in a much clearer and more inspiring way than she ever has. If he could just speak for her, I think she'd have even more support from the Democratic base. He is, after all, as Obama has called him, the Secretary of Explaining Stuff.
Bernie takes a much different approach than Hillary. He says, "To hell with these nips and tucks, we need a revolution! We need stitches, we can afford stitches, every other country in the world is getting stitches; where are our goddamn stitches? We're bleeding to death here!" And man o' man is that more inspiring to hear. Because it's true. We've been getting screwed by corporations and wealthy campaign donors and lobbyists and politicians in the pockets of shady billionaires for over thirty years. I, like Bernie, want nothing more than to tax the shit out of these people and spend it on government programs that benefit the middle and lower class. It happens everywhere else in the civilized world. We don't get the perks of a wealthy nation because all of our wealth is isolated in the top 1% of earners and they aren't about to share the wealth of their own free will (and the American public is apparently too stupid to vote in favor of their own best interests).
That being said, the system is what it is and as we've seen with Obama's "In like a lion out like a lamb," Presidency, the President only has so much power to create change in the country. Congress can be very effective in shutting down a President's agenda if it is not in line with their politics--and our current Congress' politics are batshit conservative if not childishly obstructionist. I think Hillary's plans are plans she can get Republican support for, or at least enough Republican support to push them through. Bernie's plans only work if, in addition to electing him we elect a Democratic super majority to Congress. That would be a revolution and that's something I and most progressives are very much behind. BUT, that isn't anywhere close to happening. We have the rise of little hands Hitler on the other side of the aisle. No way he wins in the general, but his following is out there and they vote--locally and otherwise and it's people like them that will forever keep us from accomplishing Bernie Sanders-like progress. I think it is much more likely that we'll see blue states making big progressive moves on their own, proving these changes work, and eventually getting the rest of the country on board. I think Bernie's plans could work on a state level, in the right states, but on a national level, I just don't see how he gets any of what he's saying passed. And, if he can't get the big ideas passed, what's his back-up plan? What we end up with may be far less organized and functional than what Hillary is purposing because it will be an ACA-like compromise on what he's after (if he doesn't get categorically blocked by Republicans for eight years solely based on calling himself a Democratic Socialist. Maybe we need to consider that Hillary Clinton is pretty experienced with all of this stuff and married to one of the most brilliant Presidents we've had in recent times who is no doubt advising her on all of her positions.
Ultimately, as progressives, we don't want to admit that these billionaires and huge corporations make up a significant portion of our economy and have the potential to pay for a lot of nice stuff the country really needs. Calling them liars and crooks and coming after them with lofty rhetoric about high taxes and tough regulations, while inspiring to hear, is not a great way to get them on board with making positive changes. They're grasp on the country is not going to loosen just because a Democratic Socialist becomes President. He can't Executive Order them into submission. He needs congress to do any of the things he's talking about, and quite frankly, after hearing Bill Clinton talk for an hour, I am inclined to say Hillary will make our lives better, faster by playing the game than Bernie will by insisting the game is stupid (Even if it is). After all, what kind of politician can't take someone's money and then screw them down the road? I think Clinton is politically savvy to know this and do this. She plays the game and plays it well and while she won't get us a revolution, she may get us eight years closer to a country that benefits our children more than it does the children of people who would be fine if they paid 95% of their income in taxes.
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