Off With Their Heads! Why Change Demands Progressive Hearts, Not Centrist Brains

Dear Friends,

The subject of this post is the title of an article by Peter Bloom at CommonDreams (here). It is a great article, and you should read it.  I will just quote some of the great lines.

After discussing the Democratic establishments' position that voting for Hillary Clinton is the intelligent thing to do, Mr. Bloom continues:

Yet this now common sense view is more establishment fantasy than reality. Not only does it completely ignore how accomplished Bernie Sanders is as a lawmaker, it also misses how utterly out of touch and misguided Hillary’s brand of Liberal centrism is in the modern world. The reaction to Sanders popularity reveals just how desperately the Democratic Party needs to rethink what it considers “smart politics”.

In discussing the narrative spun by the Democratic establishment and the media, Mr. Bloom writes:

The underlying assumption is that Sander’s surging popularity is fueled primarily by emotion, lacking the “hardheaded” perspective to achieve genuine change. ...By contrast, it is argued that what Hillary Clinton lacks in flash she makes up for in substance. ...

Indeed this assumption seems so rational to be almost unquestionable. Bernie Sanders is drawing raucous crowds across the country with his message of “political revolution”. By contrast, Hillary Clinton is touting her long experience and the possibilities for incremental reform.
Digging a little deeper reveals the fiction of this increasingly accepted view. It is Bernie Sanders, not Hillary Clinton, who has been able to transform his high minded progressive ideals into a real legislative achievements. And it is Hillary Clinton who has had to explain a legislative record littered with “mistakes” and once strongly held positions she has now evolved on.

In the end Mr. Bloom concludes:

To meet the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century requires a popular movement committed to ideals of equality, democracy and justice. And it demands strong leadership willing to fight for these values.

Clearly the person who can provide that leadership is Bernie Sanders.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal