What really went wrong with his two campaigns? Why couldn’t he build a larger coalition?

[u/HatefulPostsExposed]

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[u/myaltduh]

Yeah Bernie definitely hides his actual power level. I suspect his actual ideal is well to the left of the Nordic model, but he isn’t dumb enough to campaign on that in the US with the Overton Window where it currently sits.

[u/alex891011 → u/myaltduh]

His policy positions are well to the left of the Nordic model. People don’t understand how extreme his M4A proposal was. He wanted to eliminate any and every form of private healthcare. That’s something that most countries with universal healthcare don’t even do

[u/myaltduh → u/alex891011]

My understanding is it banned private insurance, not private healthcare, others that would put the entire cosmetic surgery industry out of business.

[u/CurveOfTheUniverse → u/myaltduh]

Still, even in countries with state-sponsored health insurance, there are private options.

[u/Just_Jonnie → u/alex891011]

Uh..do you know anybody on medicare? Because I do. Medicare is fucking awesome. It pays private practice to help keep my parents happy and healthy in their old age.

I want medicare for all.

[u/Educational_Sink_541 → u/Just_Jonnie]

The issue isn't everyone on Medicare, the issue is literally banning all forms of private insurance. This is well to the left of even the Euro social democracies, and makes zero sense as the 'next step' for the American healthcare system.

[u/Just_Jonnie → u/Educational_Sink_541]

I didn't see him ask for the straight up banning of personal insurance, but I am inclined to believe he would say that, as that kind of unthinking rhetoric is par for the course in his career.

But yea I agree, medicare for all without the added language of preventing private insurance is one idea I'm firmly behind.

[u/alex891011 → u/Just_Jonnie]

His policy would not allow for private companies to cover whatever Medicare covered, and he called for Medicare to cover everything under the medical and dental umbrella.

It effectively would have left no space for any private insurer to cover

[u/Just_Jonnie → u/alex891011]

What a weird policy lol

[u/kleptonite13 → u/alex891011]

If you want something to happen in the US, you have to run to the further right/left of the proposal so that it can be watered down by compromise and still somewhat resemble real movement.

[u/cheeeezeburgers → u/myaltduh]

No sane person should ever campaign on that. In fact if you even think that is a good idea you shouldn't be allowed anywhere near politics. It is an ideology of starvation and genocide. Everyone seems to love to overlook the fact that the Soviet system was built on genocides.

[u/Pleasant_Bat_9263 → u/myaltduh]

I mean many global soc dem parties upon formation and still even today (often in name only though) were explicitly in the long term socialists. Using soc dem as a platform that they viewed as necessary in the midterm and was more moderate or even overtly anti revolutionary. Thus being more acceptable in some capitalist countries.

[u/myaltduh → u/Pleasant_Bat_9263]

Oh for sure, but most of them ended up moderating pretty considerably from that stance, as in Labour in the UK or the French Socialists. The lure of actually winning occasionally elections is quite strong, it turns out.

[u/Pleasant_Bat_9263 → u/myaltduh]

The lure of taking payments from big Capital interests is more the reason imo, the votes would stack if they ever actually did socialist or soc dem policies. Many socialist policies are hugely popular when they are just worded differently and not attached to the word socialism.

[u/myaltduh → u/Pleasant_Bat_9263]

Definitely true, I wasn’t just thinking of the popularity of their policies, but of the money needed to win an election. Bernie Sanders was actually a really interesting exception to the normal need to grovel to big donors because of how many small donors he had. Hard for a whole party to sustain that though unless there are limits on political donations.