Progressives need to understand that Bernie Sanders was never the answer. Support for “democratic socialism” may be on the rise, but it’s not nearly enough to underwrite a governing majority. Jitters about electability aren’t the only thing doing Mr. Sanders in, though.
Democrats are hungry for reform, not revolution. To oust Mr. Trump and especially to govern effectively, Democrats need a fighting creed that avoids both Mr. Biden’s blinkered complacency and Mr. Sanders’s quixotic hand-waving. She may be gone from the race, but Elizabeth Warren has a plan for that. Democrats should pick up the fallen flag of Warren-ism and run…
Although Warrenism may be less “revolutionary” than Mr. Sanders’s socialism, it’s also more threatening to concentrated power. That’s because it’s learned and realistic about the ways in which rules structure the political and economic incentives that ultimately determine who gets how much of what. Warrenism is jealous of the political rights of citizens and therefore hostile to electoral practices — like gerrymandering, voter-ID laws and felon disenfranchisement — that deprive vulnerable citizens of equal representation. That extends to Senate rules, like the filibuster, that stymie majority rule in an already anti-majoritarian system.
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