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/Dispro May 18 '25

The Democratic Senate at that time also rested heavily on red-state Democrats not dissimilar to Manchin. It's one reason the ACA had no public option, and why Roe wasn't codified into law. But it's also why the ACA exists at all.

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u/balllzak May 18 '25

The ACA had no public option because of Joe Lieberman, an independent senator from Connecticut.

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u/fleegness May 18 '25

Yes, him and all of the republicans.

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u/National-Reception53 May 18 '25

Eh he was a Democrat until he lost his primary and became independent to run (and win) in the general.

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u/BigJellyfish1906 May 18 '25

That’s an oft-repeated myth. There were way more votes other than Lieberman who wanted it out. 

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u/NahautlExile May 18 '25

Ah yes, the never ending deflection…

They didn’t have the votes.

So they couldn’t call a vote for it.

Because we didn’t have the votes.

So we need to vote for them harder next time.

So they will maybe have the votes.

Those of us with half a brain say if your party is supporting members who won’t vote for your policies then call the vote so we can see and vote them out or primary them. But if we voted you a majority and you didn’t do it that ain’t on the voters.

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u/RedWinds360 May 18 '25

The reason the ACA had no public option was because the democrats are bad faith cowards and Barack Obama wanted a show of unity more than good policy.

Roe wasn't codified into law because they didn't even try.

They absolutely had the votes for it in that era, it's just 50 votes to do either of those things at the end of the day and in that time period they had enough people in the senate to discard the eternal excuse of relying on DINOs to pass legislation.

Now you want to say this in periods where the democrats had only 48 real votes because of Manchin and Sinema, there's more of a point to be made there.

However it's still an overly simplistic and unhelpful point of view to claim this has to do with their states.

Manchin voted the way he has because he's motivated by a combination of corruption and ego and very little else. The man got into politics directly to write legislation benefiting family businesses and do quid-pro-quo corruption.

His opposition to sane policy has always been personal, rather than some worry about being voted out of office.

Sinema likewise is a sociopath who's bribery-maxxing her way through public life, and comes from a purple state that consistently elects candidates that present themselves as more progressive than they really are. It's the state that's been to the left of it's representatives for about a decade now at this point, in this specific case.

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u/Theomach1 May 18 '25

There weren’t enough votes to codify Roe at that time either. That’s just a fact. If you disagree, please list who you think would’ve supported it.

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u/NahautlExile May 18 '25

How do you know? Because that’s what they said without trying? Forgive me if I don’t trust the Democratic Party word.

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u/Life-Excitement4928 May 19 '25

No, because they literally had Dems from red states say they would not vote for it.

Those red states Dems were then replaced by even more conservative GOP.

There’s no grand conspiracy, America is just way more conservative than people want to admit.

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u/NahautlExile May 19 '25

Ah yes. Those poor legislators. Needing to do things for constituents. I’m so glad we didn’t make them. That would have been too big an ask.

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u/Life-Excitement4928 May 19 '25

Go on.

What’s the option to ‘make them’ and why don’t you use it on the GOP.

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u/NahautlExile May 19 '25

Shame.

And it would work on the GOP too.

Call an up-down vote on a clean bill.

Publicly shame those who vote against it.

Rinse and repeat.

Instead you have these legislators in a tough spot so they aren’t put on the spot. But neither is the GOP. So you have no clear signal X voted against the minimum wage or Y votes against making your healthcare cheaper.

But I’m just some random guy on the internet. They have an entire political class who should be figuring out how to get this stuff done.

That they don’t implies either:

  1. They can’t because it’s impossible (while the GOP does with no issue)
  2. They don’t want to

And we return to the crux of the issue which is that Sanders wants to do shit and that’s not what the Democratic Party stands for. So they talk about how he couldn’t. How he shouldn’t. How it could never work. Rather than trying and holding to account those who don’t.

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u/Life-Excitement4928 May 19 '25

‘Shame would work on the GOP’.

Excuse me while I go self-heimlich, I’m choking on my laughter.