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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 2/23/16

The Sanders "Economic Plan" Controversy

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Again, "When you dare to do big things, big results should be expected. The Sanders program is big, and when you run it through a standard model, you get a big result."

Galbraith drops the mic.

90s-Style Attack Politics

There is a style of politics where you win by creating a lasting "first impression" before your opponent has a chance to respond. When people are first looking at a candidate there is an information gap, so early information can fill the void and "set the narrative" about them. This was common in old-style politics of the past. But the overuse and negativity of it turned people off to politics in general, not knowing who to trust anymore.

This was such an attack. In this case the attack was meant to give an impression that Sanders "makes promises he can't keep," Sanders "doesn't know what he is talking about," and Sanders' "numbers don't add up." Of course people can't be expected to dive into complicated economic models themselves.

(Another example of this kind of attack politics is the idea that Sanders somehow is "against" African Americans and women. For example, recently Clinton campaign ally David Brock said, "black lives don't matter much to Bernie Sanders," in an attempt to reinforce that narrative. But then the New Hampshire primary showed that Sanders actually does get votes from women, and Nevada showed he can get votes from Latinos -- erasing the myth of a supposed demographic disadvantage and restoring issues to the forefront of the campaign.)

This "attack politics" used to be very effective. Back then there were few ways a candidate could break through a set narrative. Channels for getting information to voters were limited, as was mindshare. But times have changed. Now there is the Internet. People are connected. Information gets passed around. Memories are longer -- because Internet search engines let you look into the past. So the 90s-style attack might set an opening narrative, but people have the capacity to analyze the attack and might see that what they first heard is not the story at all. And then they are as likely to turn on the attacker as believe the attack.

This is happening to the story about Sander's proposals, and Friedman's analysis of their effect on the economy. For example, Kevin Drum, who originally wrote, "Bernie Sanders' Campaign Has Crossed Into Neverland" is taking it back. In "On Second Thought, Maybe Bernie Sanders' Growth Claims Aren't As Crazy As I Thought," Drum actually puts Sanders' proposals through some actual analysis -- none of the other critics had done this -- and writes, "[I]t turns out that...Friedman isn't projecting anything wildly out of the ordinary after all. ... I set out to take another whack at these projections, and I didn't really get what I expected. So I figured I should share."

Unfortunately Drum still says these are Sanders' claims instead of Friedman's. But you take what you can get.

So the turnaround is beginning. In the 90's the "establishment" may have gotten away with this and established a "truthiness" to the claim that Sanders' numbers don't add up (even though they are actually Friedman's numbers). Spending on fixing our infrastructure actually would "create jobs" and raise wages. Shifting health care costs off of people's and business' backs though a Medicare-for-All plan actually would help the economy. Increasing Social Security benefits and the minimum wage actually would enable people to spend more at local stores, boosting the economy.

We don't have to accept slow growth, resulting from austerity policies, as the "new normal." Our economy is currently resisting treacherous global economic conditions and those conditions, if anything, could plausibly argue for the U.S. to accelerate against the global headwinds to prevent us from joining other countries in an economic spiral downward. In fact, it is in the interest of the rest of the world for the U.S. to play this role. And that is exactly what Sanders' proposals do.

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Dave has more than 20 years of technology industry experience. His earlier career included technical positions, including video game design at Atari and Imagic. He was a pioneer in design and development of productivity and educational (more...)
 

Related Topic(s): Bernie Sanders; Economic Recovery Policy; Economic Stimulus; Politics; Republican, Add Tags
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