Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Why the Sanders Surge Is Forcing Democrats to Confront America's
Inequality
________________________________________
Why the Sanders Surge Is Forcing Democrats to Confront America's Inequality
By Steven Rosenfeld [1] / AlterNet [2]
March 30, 2016
Anybody paying attention to the 2016 Democratic presidential campaign knows
Bernie Sanders is on a roll. Hillary Clinton is doing everything she can to
ignore [3] him in her speeches. Her campaign is saying [4] maybe they won't
debate before New York's primary. But they keep sending email blasts saying
how much more his grassroots supporters are donating than hers.
Sanders is leading Clinton by four points in the latest pol [5]l in the next
big state, Wisconsin, which votes next Tuesday. Should he win, as even the
New York Times was predicting earlier this week [6], then the race moves
next to a series of delegate-rich mid-Atlantic states voting in late April:
New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania. (Rhode Island
also votes on April 26.)
Most mainstream analysts are focusing on the delegate math, saying Sanders
has to win at least 56 percent [6] of the pledged delegates from all
remaining states. They're saying that math favors Clinton, because she does
better among wealthier Democrats and more racially diverse states, and
that's who will be voting on April 19 (New York) and a week later along the
eastern seaboard.
Indeed, those states are among those at the top of the national chart for
highest household [7] incomes, from just over $70,000 in Maryland to over
just $50,000 in Pennsylvania in 2015. These states' residents also tend to
have the most disposable income [8], and people whose income brackets tend
to invest their savings in stock market mutual funds [9].
These political projections and economic trends pose a fundamental question
that is not being raised in most analyses: Will this region's middle- and
upper-middle-class Democrats respond to Sanders' message that big steps need
to be taken to offset class-based inequalities, starting with addressing
economic injustices by making Wall Street pay higher taxes? Or will they
reject him because they are financially doing better than the nation as a
whole?
In other words, are Democrats who have figured out how to make more money
willing to shake up the status quo?
It is one thing for Sanders to rail against the super-rich or target the
wealthiest Americans for higher taxes. For example, his proposal [10] to
boost Social Security benefits by forcing people making more than $250,000 a
year to pay income taxes for the program like those now making under
$118,500-the current income tax cap funding the system-starts by targeting
the wealthiest 1.5 percent of Americans. (If he proposed just lifting the
current income tax cap, that would affect the top 6.3 percent [11] of
taxpayers.)
You can expect Sanders will not change his rhetoric that much, as that has
been his hallmark. Reporters who have traveled with him have noticed [12]
that he only slightly modulates his topics as the audience changes, such as
talking more about criminal justice reform when speaking to African
Americans in the South.
But whether Sanders' anti-establishment remedies will be rejected by
Democrats who have more invested in the establishment- whether they [13] are
little more than continuing what Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon
Johnson proposed decades ago-is a question where the answer will echo far
beyond the Democrats' 2016 nominating process.
Progressives can hope that the Democratic Party is changing; that after
years of seeing it cater to pro-corporate centrists and the agendas of
wealthier donors it is shifting back to Main Street. But in states along the
Acela corridor [14], where Amtrak runs its fast trains between Washington
and Boston, we will soon see if the resistance to systemic change is not
just confined to the wealthiest Americans.
Will these Democrats be willing to see their mutual funds pay a tiny
transaction tax if it is used for making [13] public colleges and
universities tuition-free, and lowering college loan interest rates? Will
they be willing to pay more taxes if it means creating the national
health-care program Sanders says will cost them $500 more a year yet cut
annual coverage costs by thousands?
States with wealthier Democrats should have little to fear from a Sanders
presidency. But as wealthier individuals are arguably more invested in the
status quo, we'll soon see whether eastern Democrats will embrace
Sanders-and a broader progressive agenda.
Steven Rosenfeld covers national political issues for AlterNet, including
America's retirement crisis, democracy and voting rights, and campaigns and
elections. He is the author of "Count My Vote: A Citizen's Guide to Voting"
(AlterNet Books, 2008).
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Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [15]
[16]
________________________________________
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/why-sanders-surge-forcing-democrats-co
nfront-americas-inequality
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/steven-rosenfeld
[2] http://alternet.org
[3]
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hillary-clinton-continues-ignore-bernie-sande
rs/story?id=33830968
[4]
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/274470-clinton-aide-n
ew-york-debate-depends-on-tone-of-sanders
[5]
http://fox6now.com/2016/03/30/marquette-university-law-school-to-release-new
-poll-2/
[6]
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/29/upshot/bernie-sanders-faces-tougher-terrai
n-after-a-big-week.html?ref=topics
[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_income#States_ranked_by
_median_household_income
[8]
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/10/05/which-states-residents-have
-the-most-cash-to-spend.aspx
[9] https://www.ici.org/pdf/rpt_14_profiles.pdf
[10]
https://www.sanders.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Social%20Security%20Statment%20
-%208-24-11.pdf
[11]
http://cepr.net/blogs/cepr-blog/over-the-top-who-pays-more-if-we-raise-the-s
ocial-security-payroll-tax-cap
[12]
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/29/us/politics/bernie-sanders-campaign.html
[13]
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-bernie-sanders-editorial-boa
rd-20160323-snap-story.html
[14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Corridor
[15] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Why the Sanders Surge
Is Forcing Democrats to Confront America's Inequality
[16] http://www.alternet.org/
[17] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Why the Sanders Surge Is Forcing Democrats to Confront America's
Inequality
Why the Sanders Surge Is Forcing Democrats to Confront America's Inequality
By Steven Rosenfeld [1] / AlterNet [2]
March 30, 2016
Anybody paying attention to the 2016 Democratic presidential campaign knows
Bernie Sanders is on a roll. Hillary Clinton is doing everything she can to
ignore [3] him in her speeches. Her campaign is saying [4] maybe they won't
debate before New York's primary. But they keep sending email blasts saying
how much more his grassroots supporters are donating than hers.
Sanders is leading Clinton by four points in the latest pol [5]l in the next
big state, Wisconsin, which votes next Tuesday. Should he win, as even the
New York Times was predicting earlier this week [6], then the race moves
next to a series of delegate-rich mid-Atlantic states voting in late April:
New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania. (Rhode Island
also votes on April 26.)
Most mainstream analysts are focusing on the delegate math, saying Sanders
has to win at least 56 percent [6] of the pledged delegates from all
remaining states. They're saying that math favors Clinton, because she does
better among wealthier Democrats and more racially diverse states, and
that's who will be voting on April 19 (New York) and a week later along the
eastern seaboard.
Indeed, those states are among those at the top of the national chart for
highest household [7] incomes, from just over $70,000 in Maryland to over
just $50,000 in Pennsylvania in 2015. These states' residents also tend to
have the most disposable income [8], and people whose income brackets tend
to invest their savings in stock market mutual funds [9].
These political projections and economic trends pose a fundamental question
that is not being raised in most analyses: Will this region's middle- and
upper-middle-class Democrats respond to Sanders' message that big steps need
to be taken to offset class-based inequalities, starting with addressing
economic injustices by making Wall Street pay higher taxes? Or will they
reject him because they are financially doing better than the nation as a
whole?
In other words, are Democrats who have figured out how to make more money
willing to shake up the status quo?
It is one thing for Sanders to rail against the super-rich or target the
wealthiest Americans for higher taxes. For example, his proposal [10] to
boost Social Security benefits by forcing people making more than $250,000 a
year to pay income taxes for the program like those now making under
$118,500-the current income tax cap funding the system-starts by targeting
the wealthiest 1.5 percent of Americans. (If he proposed just lifting the
current income tax cap, that would affect the top 6.3 percent [11] of
taxpayers.)
You can expect Sanders will not change his rhetoric that much, as that has
been his hallmark. Reporters who have traveled with him have noticed [12]
that he only slightly modulates his topics as the audience changes, such as
talking more about criminal justice reform when speaking to African
Americans in the South.
But whether Sanders' anti-establishment remedies will be rejected by
Democrats who have more invested in the establishment- whether they [13] are
little more than continuing what Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon
Johnson proposed decades ago-is a question where the answer will echo far
beyond the Democrats' 2016 nominating process.
Progressives can hope that the Democratic Party is changing; that after
years of seeing it cater to pro-corporate centrists and the agendas of
wealthier donors it is shifting back to Main Street. But in states along the
Acela corridor [14], where Amtrak runs its fast trains between Washington
and Boston, we will soon see if the resistance to systemic change is not
just confined to the wealthiest Americans.
Will these Democrats be willing to see their mutual funds pay a tiny
transaction tax if it is used for making [13] public colleges and
universities tuition-free, and lowering college loan interest rates? Will
they be willing to pay more taxes if it means creating the national
health-care program Sanders says will cost them $500 more a year yet cut
annual coverage costs by thousands?
States with wealthier Democrats should have little to fear from a Sanders
presidency. But as wealthier individuals are arguably more invested in the
status quo, we'll soon see whether eastern Democrats will embrace
Sanders-and a broader progressive agenda.
Steven Rosenfeld covers national political issues for AlterNet, including
America's retirement crisis, democracy and voting rights, and campaigns and
elections. He is the author of "Count My Vote: A Citizen's Guide to Voting"
(AlterNet Books, 2008).
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [15]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[16]
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/why-sanders-surge-forcing-democrats-co
nfront-americas-inequality
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/steven-rosenfeld
[2] http://alternet.org
[3]
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hillary-clinton-continues-ignore-bernie-sande
rs/story?id=33830968
[4]
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/274470-clinton-aide-n
ew-york-debate-depends-on-tone-of-sanders
[5]
http://fox6now.com/2016/03/30/marquette-university-law-school-to-release-new
-poll-2/
[6]
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/29/upshot/bernie-sanders-faces-tougher-terrai
n-after-a-big-week.html?ref=topics
[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_income#States_ranked_by
_median_household_income
[8]
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/10/05/which-states-residents-have
-the-most-cash-to-spend.aspx
[9] https://www.ici.org/pdf/rpt_14_profiles.pdf
[10]
https://www.sanders.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Social%20Security%20Statment%20
-%208-24-11.pdf
[11]
http://cepr.net/blogs/cepr-blog/over-the-top-who-pays-more-if-we-raise-the-s
ocial-security-payroll-tax-cap
[12]
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/29/us/politics/bernie-sanders-campaign.html
[13]
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-bernie-sanders-editorial-boa
rd-20160323-snap-story.html
[14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Corridor
[15] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Why the Sanders Surge
Is Forcing Democrats to Confront America's Inequality
[16] http://www.alternet.org/
[17] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
