Bernie Sanders officially ended his presidential campaign today. But although Sanders is a 2020 electoral loser, he is nonetheless a political winner: because his extreme, left-wing ideas have come to dominate the political dialogue and debate.
“Medicare for all,” for instance, which is just a nice-sounding name for a “single-payer,” government-controlled healthcare system, has gone mainstream and, according to many polls, now commands majority support.
“Free” college for all also ranks high now in the public’s political consciousness, as does the call to “ban new fracking.”
“It was not long ago,” Sanders said today “that people considered these ideas radical and fringe. Today they are mainstream ideas.”
Sadly, he’s right. As the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board observes:
For the evidence, see Joe Biden’s agenda.
Mr. Biden promises free community college, plus free four-year university for every family earning under $125,000 a year. He has resisted Medicare for All, but he wants to add a government “public option” to ObamaCare.
Even Barack Obama couldn’t get this through Congress in 2010, despite a Senate supermajority.
Mr. Biden’s proposed tax increases total $3.4 trillion over 10 years, twice what Hillary Clinton suggested in 2016. His climate plan runs to $1.7 trillion over a decade and calls for the construction of a transcontinental high-speed railway.
Don’t forget his pledge at the last debate of “no new fracking.” This is what a middle-of-the-road Democrat looks like in 2020.
Exactly. While there may well be “moderate” Democrats who don’t share Sanders “progressive” ideological zeal, the truth is that they, like Biden, are responsive to, and beholden to, Sanders’ far-left political agenda.
Senator Sanders and his supporters have changed the dialogue in America.
Issues which had been given little attention—or little hope of ever passing—are now at the center of the political debate. Income inequality, universal health care, climate change, free college, relieving students from the crushing debt of student loans.
These are just a few of the issues Bernie and his supporters have given life to. And while Bernie and I may not agree on how we might get there, we agree on the ultimate goal for these issues and many more [emphasis added].
In other words, Biden and other “moderate” Democrats want to empower the government as much as Sanders and the “progressives” do. They just want to do so in a slower and more deliberative fashion.
The Democratic Party’s left-wing lurch, and America’s newfound flirtation with socialism, are frightening and disconcerting. But give the devil his due: At least the Sanders Democrats are brimming with ideas—bad, statist ideas, mind you, but ideas nonetheless.
The Trump Republicans, by contrast, are completely devoid of ideas.
Indeed, since taking over the GOP, the Trump Republicans have become a cult of personality devoted to “The Donald,” and policy ideas have taken a back seat.
There is, consequently, no free-market policy agenda that the GOP is pushing to replace Obamacare, reform and save entitlements, and promote more robust economic growth.
Sanders, though, offers a model for what can invigorate the Grand Old Party: a conservative insurrection candidate in 2024 brimming with outside-the-box (or at least outside the “mainstream”) policy ideas.
Like Sanders, such a candidate probably won’t win the party’s nomination; but she could shake up the party, move it to the right, and make it a more viable vehicle for much-needed political and policy reform based on federalism and entrepreneurial capitalism.
In short, Bernie was right to push for a “revolution.” The problem was he pushed for the wrong type of revolution, and our politics is suffering now as a result.
But we on the right can learn from Bernie’s example and follow his political model or playbook to right the ship of state in the years ahead. Let’s hope—and pray—that we do.
Feature photo credit: Associated Press via the New York Post.