Great Vox piece that details the major points of her policy agenda. It’s not the full throated social democracy Sanders promised, but it’s far closer to that then the DLC agenda from the 1990s. It’s frankly unfair not to call her domestic agenda anything other than progressive. Incrementalism is how progress is made. If we had told LBJ to wait for single payer, we wouldn’t have Medicare. If we had told FDR not to give up on a cradle to grave welfare state, we wouldn’t have SSI.
I get that people want to see their issues shouted from the rooftops and the bully pulpit of the presidency, but in our polarized era, the bully pulpit isn’t as strong as it used to be. What is strong is knowing what policies can actually be implemented and how to move the levers of the legislature to achieve them. This is a strong case that a President Clinton will do this.
Here is our present reality:
The US does not have universal health coverage.
The US does not have universal pre-K or child care.
The US does not have paid family and medical leave.
The US does not provide adequate support to poor families.
Highlights from what Clinton is promising:
The vast majority of families would be able to send children to public colleges and universities tuition-free. Four-year-olds would have universal access to pre-K, and child care would be massively subsidized so as to cap costs at 10 percent of a family’s income. All workers would get 12 weeks paid family leave and 12 weeks paid medical leave, in case they need to care for a new child, a sick family member, or themselves. The child tax credit would be doubled for families with young children and made available to poor families with little earnings.
a world in which Clinton’s agenda passed is one in which it would be the stated responsibility of government to ensure everyone can afford health care, child care, and college. It would radically expand the boundaries of the American welfare state, probably for good.
“I think a lot of Clinton’s proposals are very much a step in the direction of a Nordic-style or social democratic welfare state,” Lane Kenworthy, a sociologist at the University of Arizona and author of Social Democratic America, says.
johntmay says
My hope is that President Clinton sits down with her connections on Wall Street and has an FDR channeling experience. I believe it’s possible. She will need to point out the rise in a populist agenda as was exhibited by the enormous popularity of Senator Sanders and Mr. Trump. I believe she can do it, but I believe in the political reality that we, the people, have to make her do it.
jconway says
And I exactly agree with the rest of your prescription. Her strategy has to be one part inside baseball (these policies will save you from less tempered populism) and one part outside agitator (i welcome their hatred).
johntmay says
If she can pull it off, as FDR did, she will be able to convince her Wall Street pals that they have two choices. One is taking her offer as stated and the other is, well, rather unpleasant.
johntmay says
He was THAT popular. Four Clinton terms, while shared by the couple, could be as dynamic and successful in truly, making America great, again.