{"id":11720,"date":"2019-04-26T18:30:39","date_gmt":"2019-04-27T01:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=11720"},"modified":"2019-04-26T18:30:41","modified_gmt":"2019-04-27T01:30:41","slug":"bernie-sanders-and-the-song-of-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2019\/04\/26\/bernie-sanders-and-the-song-of-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernie Sanders and the Song of America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

April 25, 2019 by Common Dreams<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike any other politician in modern U.S. history, Sanders has revived a language of social and democratic rights<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

by Thomas J. Adams<\/a> (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Bernie Sanders during a town hall event on CNN earlier this week. “As his rivals offer dazzling arrays of policy proposals, some with deep merit while others boilerplate technocratic, Sanders is often criticized for his lack of policy minutiae,” writes Adams. “This is wrong-headed to say the least.” (Photo: CNN)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The anti-Bernie impulses of the nation\u2019s leading keepers of political orthodoxy were not having a good couple of weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 15 Bernie Sanders became the first candidate for the Democratic Party\u2019s presidential nomination not named Joe Biden to lead in a national poll.  His campaign later released internal polling showing him trouncing Donald Trump in the integral states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The countless outlets from left to right inclined to deride his candidacy and ideas were forced to admit that his performance at a Fox News town hall\u2014doing the unimaginable thing of actually talking to voters who normally don\u2019t vote for Democrats (or maybe that\u2019s who don\u2019t vote for normal Democrats)\u2014was impressive, effective, and a sign of electability.  For the icing on the cake, an array of wealthy donors, financiers, defense industry contractors, a wannabe reality star son of Bank of America\u2019s former chairman<\/a>, and leading party figures were exposed for meeting in secret over canapes to organize a stop Bernie campaign \u201csooner, rather than later.\u201d  The fund-raising email wrote itself. The explicit confirmation that his campaign was threatening to people whose interests might not be exactly the same as most Americans was priceless.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Unlike any other candidate in the Democratic Primary field and any other candidate in modern American history, Sanders talks in terms of expanding the inalienable rights of every citizen.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then, at a CNN town hall in Manchester, N.H. Bernie made \u201cthe first big misstep of the 2020 Democratic primary season.\u201d <\/a> Responding to an audience question, Sanders made the statement that he supports voting rights for felons.  Even the Boston Marathon bomber or sex offenders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You could almost hear the milquetoast punditry\u2019s exhalations from their think tank cubicles and Georgetown condos.  Finally, Bernie\u2019s gone too far. There\u2019s no way Security Mom and NASCAR Dad will put up with this.  Say goodbye to suburban professionals in Philadelphia Bernie, don\u2019t let the door hit you on the way out.  Finally, we can get back to Pete Buttigieg\u2019s innovative proposals<\/a> to help the homeless bathe and Amy Klobuchar\u2019s preaching of the hard truths<\/a> of American life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pundits and the American political establishment are beside themselves with glee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And once again, they fail to grasp the quality of Bernie that is at the heart of his unique appeal.  Unlike any other candidate in the Democratic Primary field and any other candidate in modern American history, Sanders talks in terms of expanding the inalienable rights of every citizen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A large majority of Americans agree that healthcare should be a right, regardless of ability to pay.  Up until recently, most Democratic candidates talked about health savings accounts, increasing \u201caccess\u201d and \u201caffordability.\u201d  Sanders on the other hand has always talked about healthcare as a right for all Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most Americans think that if you put in a full week\u2019s work, regardless of what you do and where you do it, you should earn enough to have at least a modicum of economic security, decent housing, enough food to eat, some time to enjoy life, and the ability to raise a family.  Democrats talk about job training programs and tax credits. Sanders has always intoned about\u2014borrowing from crazy Franklin Roosevelt\u2014the right to a \u201cfreedom from want.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most Americans think that regardless of who your parents are, you should have the right to quality higher education.  To this day, most Democratic politicians disagree, offering more tax credits, low-interest loans, and the occasional wave at community colleges. Their political icons intone that \u201cthere\u2019s not anything free in America<\/a>.\u201d Besides, an elite college is okay for their daughters and sons, but not all Americans need or even want that opportunity\u2014let alone deserve it. Sanders has always argued that quality higher education should be a right, not just for those whose parents have buildings named after them or can doctor a water polo picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do most American agree with Bernie Sanders that convicted felons should maintain their voting rights while in prison?  As of today, probably not. Yet, I suspect when it\u2019s put to regular Americans in the commonsensical and deeply American rhetoric of rights, many more agree than your average Democratic politician imagines.  By regular people I do not mean the future American elite<\/a> made up of at least 1\/3 legacy<\/a>admissions who jeered Bernie at Harvard on Monday.  More than any single person alive, Sanders has revived a language of social and democratic rights. The right to health care, living wages, a job, and higher education were not on the table of conceivable choices in American politics until four years ago. It\u2019s fitting Bernie Sanders should add to that smorgasbord the rights of the largest number of legally disenfranchised American citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The funny thing about Sanders\u2019 political strength and his candidacy\u2014in opposition to most political commentators and politicians in both major parties\u2014is that it is deeply built on the language of Americanism.  The story we tell ourselves about is that we are a country of universal rights. Our progress as a nation, in narratives from both the left and the right, is about living up to these ideals. Whether one sympathizes with this American exceptionalist framework or not, it has always been, to invert Walt Whitman, our democratic chant, our acceptance of \u201cnothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As his rivals offer dazzling arrays of policy proposals, some with deep merit while others use boilerplate technocratic jargon, Sanders is often criticized for his lack of policy minutiae.  This is wrong-headed to say the least. America\u2019s most sacred policy documents and its most popular policies throughout its history are not innovative new ways to train software engineers, tax credit proposals, or health care subsidies.  They are the Bill of Rights, the 13th and 14th Amendments, the right to age gracefully and elderly health care, and of course the right to vote. When lived up to these are rights that all Americans enjoy regardless of race, gender, religion, and ability or lack thereof to pay. They are intended to be universal for all Americans and the heart of the way virtually all of us understand what is good about America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rumpled old crazy-haired kooky Jewish socialist with a funny Brooklyn accent did not become the most popular politician in America by suggesting that some rights should be means tested or that health care should be \u201caffordable.\u201d \u00a0The right to vote is, to use Sanders\u2019 words, \u201cinherent in a democracy.\u201d One would be hard-pressed to suggest that most Americans disagree with him on that point. Whether pundits and the Democratic Party have noticed it or not\u2014and judging by their rhetoric, they haven\u2019t\u2014Bernie Sanders does quite well when he gets to be the one talking about the rights we should all get by virtue of being Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 25, 2019 by Common Dreams Unlike any other politician in modern U.S. history, Sanders has revived a language of social and democratic rights by Thomas J. Adams (CommonDreams.org) Sen. Bernie Sanders during a town hall event on CNN earlier this week. “As his rivals offer dazzling arrays of policy… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11720"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11721,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11720\/revisions\/11721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}