A few days ago, I wrote another in a series of unpopular articles on why progressives shouldn’t support the Bern. Obviously, many of you passed-out a scathing rebuke that was to be expected. Well, today, Barney Frank made nearly the same arguments in his Politico op-ed and I’m hoping that now that the messenger has changed, the argument will be a tad more digestible.
Even though I can’t stand Politico, I believe its worth your while to read Barney’s thoughts. The piece is fairly long so I just extracted Frank's main argument. What follows below are his five main points:
1. [Republicans] “believe boosting Sanders’ candidacy is their only way to prevent Clinton emerging as the nominee with broad support early in the process, strengthening her position in November. They are correct.”
2. “I believe strongly that the most effective thing liberals and progressives can do to advance our public policy goals — on health care, immigration, financial regulation, reducing income inequality, completing the fight against anti-LGBT discrimination, protecting women’s autonomy in choices about reproduction and other critical matters on which the Democratic and Republican candidates for president will be sharply divided — is to help Clinton win our nomination early in the year.”
3. “Without any substance, some argue that she has been insufficiently committed to economic and social reform — for example, that she is too close to Wall Street, and consequently soft on financial regulation, and unwilling to support higher taxation on the super-rich. This is wholly without basis.”
4. "The media are very happy to have a race to cover where they feared — yes, feared — there would not be one. While Republican officeholders cannot be seen to be kind to a socialist, conservative commentators and media will be joining Kristol in touting Sanders’ heretofore unnoticed virtues."
5. "Of course it is not only possible to accept the legitimacy of Clinton’s liberal-progressive credentials and still prefer that Sanders be president, it makes sense for the most ideologically committed to hold that view. But wishful thinking is no way to win the presidency."
http://www.politico.com/...
I obviously agree with Barney Frank but would love to hear your thoughts.