Robert Reich
There aren’t twenty Senate Republicans with enough integrity to remove the most corrupt president in American history, so we’re going to have to get rid of Trump the old-fashioned way—by electing a Democrat next November 3.
That Democrat will be Warren Sanders.
Although there are differences between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, I’m putting them together for the purpose of making a simple point.
These two have most of the grass-roots energy in the 2020 campaign, most of the enthusiasm, and most of the ideas critical for America’s future.
Together, they lead Biden and every other so-called moderate Democrat by a wide margin in all polls.
That’s because the real political divide in América today is establishment versus anti-establishment—the comparatively few at the top who have siphoned off much of the wealth of the nation versus everyone else whose wages and prospects have gone nowhere.
Their core proposals would make the system work for everyone and alter the power structure in América: Medicare for All based on a single payer rather than private for-profit corporate insurance; a Green New Deal to create millions of good jobs fighting climate change; free public higher education; universal childcare.
Warren and Sanders know the system is rigged and that economic and political power must be reallocated from a corporate-Wall Street elite to the vast majority.
This is why both Warren and Sanders are hated by the Democratic Party establishment.
It’s also why much of the corporate press is ignoring the enthusiasm they’re generating. And why it’s picking apart their proposals, like a wealth tax and Medicare for All, as if they were specific pieces of legislation.
And why corporate and Wall Street Democrats are mounting a campaign to make Americans believe Warren and Sanders are “too far to the left” to beat Trump, and therefore “unelectable.”
This is total rubbish. Either of them has a better chance of beating Trump than does any other Democratic candidate.
Presidential elections are determined by turnout. Over a third of eligible voters in América don’t vote. They go to the polls only if they’re motivated. And what motivates people most is a candidate who stands for average people and against power and privilege.
Average Americans know they’re getting the scraps while corporate profits are at record highs and CEOs and Wall Street executives are pocketing unprecedented pay and bonuses.
They know big money has been flooding Washington and state capitals to cut taxes on corporations and the wealthy; roll back health, safety, environment, and labor protections; and allow big business to monopolize the economy, using its market power to keep prices high and wages low.
Most Americans want to elect someone who’s on their side.
In 2016 some voted for Trump because he conned them into believing he was that person.
But since elected he’s given big corporations and Wall Street everything they’ve wanted—rollbacks of health, safety, and environmental protections, plus a giant $2 trillion tax cut that’s boosted stock prices and executive pay while nothing trickled down.
Trump is still fooling millions into thinking he’s on their side, and that their problems are due to immigrants, minorities, cultural elites, and “deep state” bureaucrats rather than a system that’s rigged for the benefit of those at the top.
But some of these Trump supporters would join with other Americans and vote for a candidate in 2020 who actually took on power and privilege.
This is where Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders come in.
Their core proposals would make the system work for everyone and alter the power structure in América: Medicare for All based on a single payer rather than private for-profit corporate insurance; a Green New Deal to create millions of good jobs fighting climate change; free public higher education; universal childcare.
All financed mainly by a tax on the super-rich.
They’d also get big money out of politics and rescue democracy from the corporate and Wall Street elites who now control it.
They’re the only candidates relying on small donations rather than trolling for big handouts from corporations, Wall Street, and the wealthy—or rich enough to self-finance their own campaigns.
Only two things stand in their way.
The first is the power structure itself, which is trying to persuade Democrats that they should put up a milquetoast moderate instead.
The second is the possibility that, as the primary season heats up, supporters of Warren and Sanders will wage war on each other—taking both of them down.
It’s true that only one of them can be the Democratic nominee. But if the backers of both Sanders and Warren eventually come together behind one of them, they’ll have the votes to take the White House, and even flip the Senate.
President Warren Sanders can then start clearing the wreckage left by Trump, and make América decent again.
Robert Reich, is the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He served as secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time magazine named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the the twentieth century. He has written fiften books, including the best-sellers Aftershock, The Work of Nations, Beyond Outrage and, Saving Capitalism. He is also a founding editor of The American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, “Inequality For All.” Reich’s newest book is “The Common Good.” He’s co-creator of the Netflix original documentary “Saving Capitalism,” which is streaming now.
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