He told us the "era of big government is over."
His call to "end welfare as we have come to know it" led some wondering if he wasn't, in fact, a closet Republican.
Ditto with sentencing laws and "zero tolerance" policing that helped exacerbate an already racist criminal justice system.
Since then, the mainstream Democratic party has struggled with this albatross--at least lately, as the pendulum is swinging back.
When Hillary Clinton secured the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, probably the most apropos label was that she was "too centrist."
Indeed she was, but she was only following the trajectory the party had followed since her husband's presidency.
Senator Sanders is helping to change all that.
Brad DeLong is one who echoes that sentiment.
In an interview with Vox, DeLong explained the futility of Democrats' efforts to appease Republicans by conceding to their policy ideas.
He stated:
"Barack Obama rolls into office with Mitt Romney's health care policy, with John McCain's climate policy, with Bill Clinton's tax policy, and George H.W. Bush's foreign policy...And did George H.W. Bush, did Mitt Romney, did John McCain say a single good word about anything Barack Obama ever did over the course of eight solid years?
"No, they f*&!%#g did not. No allegiance to truth on anything other than the belief that John Boehner, Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell are the leaders of the Republican Party, and since they've decided on scorched earth, we're to back them to the hilt. So the politics were completely wrong, and we saw this starting back in the Clinton administration.
"Today, there's literally nobody on the right between those frantically accommodating Donald Trump, on the one hand, and us on the other...There's simply no political place for neoliberals to lead with good policies that make a concession to right-wing concerns."
When Democrats run on genuinely progressive policies, they win.
More than 70 percent of Americans want a Medicare-for-all-type universal healthcare system.
They worry about climate change.
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