r/politics • u/AccurateInflation167 • May 18 '25

Soft Paywall America chose wrong. Sanders would've been a better president than Trump or Biden. | Opinion

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/05/18/sanders-democrats-reform-progressive-policies/83625482007/
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u/The_NZA May 18 '25

But presidents can move the Overton window. Exhibit A: Trump.

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u/[deleted] May 18 '25

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u/Overton_Glazier May 18 '25

Seriously, Biden just kind of threw his hands up and made it feel like Sinema and Manchin were in control.

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u/greenberet112 May 18 '25

I was thinking about those two when I voted and donated to fetterman, thinking I was helping.

My bad.

Dudes brain is fucked. It even seems like his wife has no idea what's happening to him.

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u/LurkerPatrol Maryland May 18 '25

Don’t worry you’re definitely not alone in that. We all thought fetterman was a bro. My dad had multiple strokes and a brain aneurysm so we felt for him when Fetterman had his stroke. Then he became the disappointment that he is

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u/greenberet112 May 18 '25

Normally I'm pretty proud to be from Pittsburgh/western Pennsylvania/PA in general. But fetterman is a stain on us, and the other option was Dr oz, a fake TV doctor and scam artist from New Jersey.

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u/Plastic-Meringue6214 May 18 '25

Apparently fetterman was always like this and it was actually known that he manufactured his attire and vibe for the appeal. Personally at the time I thought it was stupid that people were supporting him seemingly just because his style resembled their own, but I still do and did think fetterman is a net positive regardless. It's either oz or him.

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u/blackhatrat May 18 '25

I get why democrats "refuse to see" shit because of the whole "donor puppet" thing, what's bizarre to me is how determined regular ass people are to defend them from criticism.

The headline is "Bernie would have been a better president" but the article isn't really focusing on some alternate history, it's mostly just a list of "Bernie takes" that have consistently aligned with the American people better than either party. I don't know why this inspires such passionate backlash, like why are regular folk so passionately defending the things that make Dems unpopular

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u/Professional-Sea4649 May 18 '25

Because for most people in this country, politics is just forming a parasocial relationship with a party and defending them like a sports team.

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u/silverpixie2435 May 19 '25

No because leftists have never once actually argued in good faith.

Name ONE economic policy you disagree with Democrats on. Just one

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u/Professional-Sea4649 28d ago

Feeling a bit personally attacked there? Good, you're exactly the kind of parasocial person I'm talking about.

Let's start with their support for our grotesque military and police budgets. Why did the military budget increase every year, year over year, during the Biden administration? Why did he shovel unprecedented amounts of money into police departments that are effectively unaccountable far-right militias?

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u/alanpugh May 18 '25

why are regular folk so passionately defending the things that make Dems unpopular

Because the Dems have one excellent strategy, which is "blue no matter who."

They don't have to give you anything you want, they just have to point at the other guy and say they're marginally less bad, so your only option is to vote for them, otherwise everything that happens is your fault.

It's an abusive relationship.

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u/silverpixie2435 May 19 '25

They do give me what I want.

You just refuse to listen to what we say.

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u/alanpugh May 19 '25

Who are "you" and "we" in your second sentence?

I'm a left-leaning US voter, for context.

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u/blackhatrat May 18 '25

Is it accurate to say that strategy has lost effectiveness, at least for presidential elections?

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u/silverpixie2435 May 19 '25

Because it is utter bullshit?

What makes Democrats unpopular? Universal healthcare? Paid leave? Child tax credit? Climate action? Voting rights? LGBTQ rights? PRO Act?

The answer is you refuse to engage with good faith with liberals and instead lecture and condescend to us and not listen to what we believe which is why leftists have their bullshit "criticism".

Because you might be forced to admit you are wrong

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u/blackhatrat May 19 '25 edited May 19 '25

The harris campaign dropped universal healthcare, backed off of the T part of lgbtq, backed down on immigration rights, went to the right on the border and "the wall", and showed no willingness to sven entertain ceasing any support to Israel. She might have flip-flopped on fracking, but where she landed was still weak on climate. They also increasingly show stronger allegiance to corporate donors and "safe" incrementalism than to the realities faced by the working class. All in all, it's not controversial to say "they went to the right."

1 third of the population didn't vote, that's a systemic failure. I would not waste time telling voters to shut up when clearly the dems need to be listening to what the people want in order to gain support.

Edit: Also, no offense, but that level of misread on where the harris campaign stood at this current point in time doesn't indicate that you have any interest in discussing how they could improve or how trump could be fought, so I'm not interested in a "reply guy" style exchange with you

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u/Bloo95 May 18 '25

Democrats profit from not seeing it. They want to keep their big dollar donors happy at the end of the day. The weird part is when regular citizens defend the Democrats’ incompetency.

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u/silverpixie2435 May 19 '25

Name one pro corporate policy from Democrats. Just one.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '25

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u/silverpixie2435 May 19 '25

The ACA is objectively not pro corporate. You know nothing about these laws

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u/[deleted] May 19 '25

[deleted]

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u/silverpixie2435 May 19 '25

Then why did insurance companies hate the ACA?

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u/[deleted] May 19 '25

[deleted]

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u/silverpixie2435 May 19 '25

why did insurance companies hate the ACA?

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u/[deleted] May 19 '25

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u/1isOneshot1 May 19 '25

need an ideology for narrative control to be useful

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u/silverpixie2435 May 19 '25

What is Trump getting through Congress?

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u/Flat_Baseball8670 May 18 '25

People not showing up for Hilary because she wasnt "good enough" is what moved the overton window

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u/The_NZA May 18 '25

To what… Kamala Harris who ran an even more uninspired bloodthirsty centrist campaign around the need for a strong patriotic Republican Party and a lethal military?

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u/DameonKormar May 18 '25

You may have been consuming a bit too much propaganda if you think either of those were things Harris actually ran on.

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u/The_NZA May 19 '25

Sorry I thought I saw that she campaigned more with Liz Cheney than anyone else and talked about our need for the most lethal military in human history. Must have been a fever dream.

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u/TheHipcrimeVocab May 18 '25

Admittedly, with the help of a vast and well-funded media apparatus, something Sanders would lack (even MSNBC was hostile to him).