The issue with these ideas is that I do not see them passing Congress nor being endorsed by moderate white voters. As a Black man, I cannot fall in love with potential. The Black community is fraught with enough issues that wishing for things that have no hope of becoming law is not a priority.
Do you know what can get passed in Congress, regardless of the party in power? Anything the voters are prepared to demand without compromise. This is why Bernie always points out that his movement has little to do with him and everything to do with us. Not me, us is his favorite campaign slogan.
I’m not sure I understand what more he can do to reassure the black community that he is fighting for them as much as he fights for anyone, if not more. His entire economic platform will benefit those who have previously been marginalized and empower them. If one judges candidates on their history Joe Biden is far closer to Trump in policies than he is Obama.
The idea of opening up the economy and sharing wealth with others seems great on paper. Democratic socialism is a concept I would love to champion, but I also know white people are not willing to endorse that.
Bernie is unique among politicians in that he actually understands the economy he is charged with managing. The major problem with gaining white voters’ approval of policies that benefit blacks, or any other minority, is that conservatives and neoliberals have convinced them that “they” must pay for those benefits with their taxes. As long as this misconception of federal financing persists they will serve as guardians of the budget. The truth is that taxes fund exactly nothing at the federal level and that deficit spending is the only source of dollars the private sector has to retire private debt or net save. Taxes are balanced to zero by the debt that created them, so all spending at the federal level is new money creation. We don’t fund our government, our government funds us.
This is too much to spring on voters in a campaign and I’m sure you can see how it would be misrepresented by the right, but I have known his econ advisor long enough to know she wouldn’t waste time on anyone who perpetuated the myth. She is in high demand around the world by governments and investors who can’t afford to function under incorrect assumptions. The only way to prove how in error the common narrative is concerning federal financing is to present an example such as FDR did to bring America out of the depth of depression.
