Bernie Sanders didn’t win, but…
“He hasn’t just run a political campaign; he’s created a movement. And make no mistake about it: I believe it’s a movement that is as powerful today as it was yesterday. That’s a good thing for our nation and our future.”
That’s what Joe Biden had to say after Bernie Sanders ended his 2020 presidential campaign. Biden added that Sanders and his supporters changed the dialogue in the U.S. on a number of progressive issues such as income inequality, universal health care, climate change and free college tuition. “I congratulate Joe Biden, a very decent man, who I will work with to move our progressive ideas forward,” said Sanders.
I supported Sanders in 2016, and I hoped that he would become the Democratic candidate this year and president next year. That won’t happen, but as Biden said, Sanders has moved progressive issues into mainstream politics. Sanders ideas have been criticized as “Socialist,” but in fact they have antecedents in Republican proposals.
Take healthcare, for example. In 1974, that great liberal Richard Nixon sent his “Special Message to the Congress Proposing a Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan.” In 1989, the conservative Heritage Foundation published a proposal called “Assuring Affordable Health Care for All Americans.” Sanders’ plan, Medicare for All, would greatly expand and overhaul Medicare. For example, it would add to the types of coverage offered and eliminate deductibles, copays and premiums.
For education, Sanders has proposed providing funding to eliminate undergraduate tuition at public colleges and universities. There is a precedent for such a huge investment in education. Signed into law in 1944 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the G.I. Bill of Rights transformed the United States following World War II by paying for the education of 7.8 million service members returning to civilian life. It opened up opportunities, providing professional careers to a generation born to working parents. And it reshaped American life, swelling the ranks of the middle class, expanding university campuses, and making college education a goal for everyone, not just the rich. During the post-war period, veterans accounted for as many as 49 percent of enrolled students at colleges and universities, as 51 percent of veterans took advantage of the edu¬cation benefits in some form.
The GI bill had a huge payoff. The country invested $7 billion in the G.I. Bill’s education programs from 1945 until 1952, but the return in productivity among those who used the bill’s education benefits pumped at least $35 billion into the economy, perhaps as much as $84 billion, according to an analysis by the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.
Sanders, like many others, wants to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Milton Friedman, the University of Chicago economist and advisor to Ronald Regan who extolled the virtues of a free-market economic system with minimal intervention, did one better: he favored a guaranteed minimum income. The benefits of a basic income on a national scale would be wide-ranging; everyone would have enough money for food and shelter, and the overall economy would grow because everyone would have at least some money to spend.
As for the environment, this month will be the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. What better present for our planet than the launch of the Green New Deal? As Sanders said, “The climate crisis is not only the single greatest challenge facing our country; it is also our single greatest opportunity to build a more just and equitable future, but we must act immediately.”
Sanders called his movement a revolution. American liberalism’s greatest achievements to date – progressive reforms, the New Deal, the Great Society, feminism and multiculturalism – all sprang from revolutionary movements. Goals that once appeared unachievable (for instance, a progressive income tax, or same-sex marriage) eventually became included in Democratic platforms.
Democrats should not pin their hopes on Biden winning the presidency just by his not being Trump, although that should be reason enough for people to vote for him. Sanders said that his staff and Biden’s staff have talked about forming task forces on health care, education, the economy, criminal justice, and education. It’s a time for working together rather than separating into warring camps.
Bobby Kennedy said, “If we fail to dare, if we do not try, the next generation will harvest the fruit of our indifference; a world we did not want, a world we did not choose, but a world we could have made better by caring more for the results of our labors…The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of bold projects and new ideas. Rather, it will belong to those who can blend passion, reason, and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals of American Society. The qualities of youth are not a time of life, but a state of mind.”
Mark Berg is a community activist in Adams County and a proud Liberal. His email address is MABerg175@Comcast.net.