Chris Matthews asked it again the other night.
“How can you enact any of your policies when you need 60 votes in the Senate?”
Bernie gave Matthews a better answer in Chicago but he still stayed within the confines of his talking points of “political revolution” and “a million people outside Mitch McConnell’s window.”
It’s a stupid question and it’s only put to Bernie. Congress is a fluid entity with membership in flux every two years. Neither are the members themselves static in their positions. Any president will face opposition from a Congress not of his party and, like Obama, from members of his own party. And the number “60” is only relevant with an extremely obstructionist Senate.
It’s time for Bernie to drill down in his response to this gotcha question. Something along the lines of:
“I can’t. And neither can my opponent.
Do you want universal health care? Economic justice? Livable minimum wage? Paid family leave? An inhabitable planet to leave to our children and grandchildren?
Elect Senators and Representatives who support those issues. Give the President a Congress to enact change.
That won’t happen this election cycle. Or maybe not the next or the next but start now.
What clearer message can you send that the time for change has come than by voting for me to be President?”