{"id":48544,"date":"2015-07-23T15:36:39","date_gmt":"2015-07-23T19:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/?p=48544"},"modified":"2015-07-23T19:56:24","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T23:56:24","slug":"why-progressives-shouldnt-support-bernie-barney-frank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/2015\/07\/why-progressives-shouldnt-support-bernie-barney-frank\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Progressives Shouldn\u2019t Support Bernie – Barney Frank"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I know that there is a counter-argument made by some on the Democratic left that a closely contested nomination process will help our ultimate nominee \u2014 that Clinton will somehow benefit from having to spend most of her time and campaign funds between now and next summer proving her ideological purity in an intraparty fight, like Mitt Romney in 2012 \u2014 rather than focusing on her differences with the conservative she will face in the election. But neither an analysis of the current political situation nor the history of presidential races supports this.<\/span><\/p>\n

I believe strongly that the most effective thing liberals and progressives can do to advance our public policy goals \u2014 on health care, immigration, financial regulation, reducing income inequality, completing the fight against anti-LGBT discrimination, protecting women\u2019s autonomy in choices about reproduction and other critical matters on which the Democratic and Republican candidates for president will be sharply divided \u2014 is to help Clinton win our nomination early in the year. That way, she can focus on what we know will be a tough job: combating the flood of post-Citizens United<\/em> right-wing money, in an atmosphere in which public skepticism about the effectiveness of public policy is high.<\/span><\/p>\n

I realize that before explaining why I am convinced that a prolonged prenomination debate about the authenticity of Clinton\u2019s support for progressive policy stances will do us more harm than good, that very point must be addressed. Without any substance, some argue that she has been insufficiently committed to economic and social reform \u2014 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. Well before the Sanders candidacy began to draw attention, she spoke out promptly in criticism of the appropriations rider that responded to the big banks\u2019 wish list on derivative trading. She has spoken thoughtfully about further steps against abuses and in favor of taxing hedge funds at a fairer, i.e., higher, rate.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is reflective of her role in the 1990s, when she was a consistent force for progressive policies in her husband\u2019s administration. And as Paul Krugman documented throughout the 2008 nomination campaign, she was, on the whole, to Barack Obama\u2019s left on domestic issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read Full Article<\/span>:>\u00a0Why Progressives Shouldn\u2019t Support Bernie<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know that there is a counter-argument made by some on the Democratic left that a closely contested nomination process will help our ultimate nominee \u2014 that Clinton will somehow benefit from having to spend most of her time and campaign funds between now and next summer proving her ideological purity in an intraparty fight,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1774,1628,22,68,20],"tags":[1887,1622,44,243,302,1877],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48544"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48544"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48551,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48544\/revisions\/48551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}