You are denying the significance of the single most salient factor at work. I think you’re merely squirting out an inky cloud like a retreating squid.
No, I outright reject that assuming a ‘left-right’ normal distribution is useful for determining voter activity. I contend that other confounding factors such as class presentation, demeanor, relatability, genuineness, and unfortunately gender are likely to be more salient than mere ideological orientation.
He’s proposing to tear down the existing system of private health insurance. I agree that this system is a mess, but Mr. Sanders makes no accommodation to the complexities of a transition. He offers a simple-minded replacement of a complicated system with another system in one go.
Well, that’s because the solution itself is simple: expand Medicare to cover every citizen, and make the program more robust in the process to eliminate the need for supplementary insurance. Yes, the insurance industry will be replaced, and there is fallout from that. Universal healthcare is well worth whatever short-run disturbances it causes. The establishment of the NHS in the UK was far more ambitious and represented the gold standard in health-care for decades, although it has been progressively defunded by the Tories in recent years.
These programs require huge increases in federal revenue. Increasing the progressivity of our tax system is an absolute necessity, and both Ms. Warren and Mr. Sanders advocate that. However, Mr. Sanders proposes transferring a huge portion of our GDP to the federal government; such a dramatic change in the structure of the economy will have a great many negative effects along with the positive ones. Ms. Warren’s proposals do not envisage such a huge shift in the economy.
These programs actually do not require a ‘huge increase’ in federal revenue. Medicare for All may actually require a tax cut because it may be deflationary in the short-run. The CBO should probably look at this first though.
Further, these programs do not transfer a ‘huge portion’ of GDP to the government. The health insurance industry does not represent a ‘huge portion’ of the economy. A Federal Jobs Guarantee (in the form of a guaranteed job for a minimum wage) only ADDS to GDP. What is the GDP output of an unemployed person? The Green New Deal is the only program with the potential to clock in a notable uptick in government activity as a percentage of GDP, and that is a program we desperately need for the survival of the species.
You see a big difference between them, but the Republicans cannot see what you see?
Yes. To your average committed Trumpite and Republican voter, Warren and Bernie are both socialists. They were convinced OBAMA was socialist.
All of this may be moot anyway because I have a sinking feel Joe Biden will run away with this primary, which would be an infinitely worse outcome than a Warren candidacy/presidency, IMO. If anyone is most likely to repeat the same mistakes of the Obama era, it’s Biden.