Well for starters, I don’t think Medicare for All is any less politically feasible at the moment than what Biden is proposing, which is an Obamacare expansion with a public option that leaves 10 million uninsured.
Part of the reason Clinton lost was Obama-Trump swing voters, whose primary issue was health care. Some 75% wanted to repeal and replace Obamacare. They didn’t like the status quo and Joe’s pledge to return to it isn’t appealing.
So in this case, being excessively moderate is what actually “turned people off.” You talk about the “first steps” toward Medicare for All but Bernie has taken them already. His campaign in 2016 fundamentally shifted the conversation in the Democratic Party to the point where even moderate candidates like Kamala Harris had to at the very least pay lip service to it.
We have a mandate for M4A now. At the high-water mark in 2016, there was nearly a supermajority of Americans in support of M4A. It has fallen slightly but holds steady at around 53–56 percent.
The evidence from the Kaiser Family Foundation suggests that much of the opposition is driven by ignorance about what exactly M4A is—63 percent still believes they would have to pay both out-of-pocket costs and higher taxes—and support varies wildly depending on if you use the phrase “Single payer” versus “Medicare for All”
The way forward is selling the idea to the public—which Bernie has done well through town halls on Fox and in debates—building public support, and then transforming that mandate into policy by putting pressure on lawmakers from the ground up via a grassroots movement.
Why is the “middle ground” any more realistic politically than radical change? Is Biden not going to face obstructionism, like Obama did? Bernie will, but he’ll at least have a movement on his side putting pressure from below and doing the legwork of making that case on a person-to-person basis, canvassing door to door, etc. Biden’s plan is the same old same old: Try to hopefully maybe flip congress again while compromising with the GOP at every step.
Weak half-measures actually erode faith in Democrats. I saw a Gallup poll that found something like 70 percent of Republicans favored more federal government intervention in healthcare in 2007. After Obama that had dropped to around 30–40 percent (in part this was due to the Koch-funded Tea Party astroturf movement, but also the general inadequacy of Obamacare deserves credit.)
I know that the idea of a grassroots movement forcing a radical change in government policy seems like pie in the sky to some folks, but it’s literally how every single major reform in the history of America has been won. Women didn’t even have the vote, but they organized and got Prohibition passed.
Nixon didn’t end the Vietnam War because he was a good person. He did it because there was a groundswell of anti-war sentiment from people who were sick of their family members and neighbors dying. And this coronavirus crisis offers a chance for something transformative. It makes obvious the need for a single-payer system. It will have a Vietnam-like effect on social consciousness as people start seeing their loved ones die.
We have to take the opportunity that’s before us and push for it while we have it instead of making a bunch of excuses for why we can’t do it.
Lastly, as an aside, I believe you’re earnest, but please spare me this stuff about Bernie’s supporters being condescending or “divisive.” “Bernie Bros” are a myth. It’s a false narrative created by Bernie’s opponents to smear him and his movement. Please stop feeding into it.
All candidates’ supporters have roughly the same amount of toxic followers—about 3%—per a content analysis by a Harvard data scientist of nearly 7 million Tweets. There are just more of us online and hostile media cherry pick a few to make it seem like it’s mostly a problem for Bernie and no one else.
I had a Warren supporter call me a “low IQ degenerate” and say she hoped I “die in a fire.” I checked her post history and it was full of that stuff. Or just go on Twitter and search for accounts that identify as #KHive. You’ll see nothing but unhinged monomaniacal hatred for Bernie. At least Bernie supporters are actually for something and not just against someone.
Anyways, I wrote about “Bernie Bros” here, if you’re interested:
