How do you do that? That's a serious question to you. All his policies cater to the working class, as does his talking points. Same with racial policies and talking points compared to Biden. For example, how could he have prevented Clyburn from endorsing Biden? Clyburn received $1m over 10 years from pharma, and Clyburn noted "Americans don't want something free, they want access." That's a talking point specifically meant to dupe voters in favor of the insurance companies. He was never going to endorse Bernie.
If I were to come up with answers/critiques, I think Bernie should have really hammered home the idea that he was the true Democrat and that he was bringing the democrats to FDR. He only mentioned FDR when on the defense (accused of socialism). This would tell voters "voting for me still means you're a true democrat and that your democrat identity isn't bad." He also should have been more upfront in calling out Biden as corrupt. He undersold his message by always qualifying how Biden was a good person.
Biden had one of the laziest campaigns, with a poor record and still won. I think the youth vote, the media, the democratic establishment coalescing behind Biden, all contributed to the manner in which he lost. Should that have been reversed, Bernie would still have lost, but I think he could have put himself in a position where a debate could bring a narrow victory.
Which major European party proposes a similar program to Sanders
Just to name some of his proposals:
- Green new deal with a volume of ~70%+ of GDP over 15 years
- Job guarantee at 15$/h
- mandated ownership of big corporations by workers (20%)
I looked at his homepage and the list of his proposals is quite long and in almost every single category he ends up being more radical than whats implemented in most European countries. His healthcare coverage is more comprehensive, most European countries move(d) away from his ideas of wealth taxation, his tax top rate proposal is higher, investment plans are way way smaller etc.pp. His proposal is substantially to the left of the last Labour manifest.
His presentation matches his program. Just read the language, that he uses to present his plan for internet-access (
https://berniesanders.com/issues/high-speed-internet-all/). That’s not how (moderate) social democrats frame their ideas. At least not where I am from.
I remember that I wrote in 2016, that Bernie is essentially just a European social democrat. Looking back, I don’t know if he was far less specific or if I was just not paying attention.
Sanders could have focused on 1-2 areas (healthcare + energy/climate change or employment) and advance bold proposals, while adopting moderate ideas in other areas. That would have smoothed the way for centrists to not get scared, while still offering an agenda that would have substantial impact when implemented.
At least from my perspective its very easy to understand why democratic centrists would be deeply ambivalent about Sanders without adding any nefarious motives. He had 4 years to change that but doubled down on his message. It could have worked and he came close (he still not entirely out). Hindsight is 20/20, but looking back a strategy that reaches out to centrists instead of trying to convert them, might have worked.
