title:  How Electable Is Bernie Sanders? A Skeptic’s Response To Robert Reich’s New Pro-Bernie Video
text: The great Robert Reich posted a new whiteboard video this week in which he makes a case in support of Bernie Sanders by reacting to claims made by Bernie Sanders skeptics   Democratic voters who aren t convinced Bernie is The Guy. I hasten to underline that while I m a Bernie skeptic, I m not a Hillary Clinton supporter either, though I do intend to vote for either Bernie or Hillary in June s California primary, as well as for the Dem nominee in the general election. Obviously. I d also like to repeat that I think Reich is one of the great left-wing political thinkers of our time. Now that the obligatory qualifiers are out of the way, Reich is off base with several of his counterpoints to Bernie skeptics.Let s take a look.1)  He d never beat Trump or Cruz.  Reich s response suggests that Bernie does indeed have a polling advantage over the Republicans in the general election, more so than Clinton. Unfortunately, Politifact determined that Bernie s version of this assessment is flatly  False.  While Sanders and Clinton each lead Trump, specifically, in the general election according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, Sanders trails both Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, while Clinton performs slightly better. PPP, meanwhile, shows Sanders losing to Trump, Cruz and Rubio while Clinton defeats all three. Additionally, and this is crucial to understanding the general election differences between the Democratic hopefuls, voters have been following Hillary Clinton for 35 years and yet she still performs better, scandals and all, than Sanders against the GOP in most polls. Sanders, meanwhile, is a relative unknown, so it s too early to tell how he ll do after the GOP begins to relentlessly attack him.2)  Congress would reject his ideas.  Reich reminds us that if Congress remains in the hands of the Republicans, Hillary Clinton wouldn t be able to do much legislatively either. Actually, that s not necessarily true. Clinton s agenda is decidedly more moderate, so while she s sure to run up against significant GOP opposition, it ll be easier for her to shake loose centrist and center-right Republicans, as well as blue dog Democrats who would otherwise oppose Sanders  significantly more leftist ideas.Reich goes on to say that Bernie could bring about a Democratic majority in Congress   if!   his political revolution works out. That s a super-colossal  if.  First of all, no revolution this year will change any gerrymandered districts. Secondly, let s suppose Sanders rides a massive wave of support into the White House with very long coattails. He d need a roughly 70-seat Democratic majority in the Senate to pass his single-payer proposal, for example.Why 70 and not 60? Blue dog Democrats. The blue dogs successfully killed the public option in 2009 and would surely join the Republicans in filibustering Bernie s single-payer legislation, hence the extra 10 votes above and beyond the 60 required to break the filibuster. Realistically, the only thing that might be able to spark a 70-seat majority (the House is totally different story, by the way) is another major financial crisis or another groundbreaking event that d compel voters to choose Democratic candidates across the board.3)  America would never elect a socialist.  Reich makes the off-the-shelf argument that there are many popular socialist programs in the United States, therefore Americans love socialism. Wrong. American voters love socialism, yes, but they don t know they do. And this argument about public schools and roads has been used since forever without successfully nudging very many voters leftward. Trust me, I ve tried it many, many times.Socialism, as we observed when Obama was falsely accused of pushing it in 2009, is still intensely demonized as being the same as communism (it s not) and, in some cases, Republicans have erroneously conflated it with the Nazis, aka  National Socialists.  (Just because  socialism  is in the name of the party founded by Hitler doesn t mean it s really socialist. Likewise, hot dogs don t contain actual dogs.)When the Republicans launch their relentless attack on Sanders  democratic-socialist platform, it ll be another swift-boating like we observed in 2004, only it ll be more relentless. Some undecided moderate voters in swing states   the people who decide elections in the polarized modern era   might be convinced to vote Sanders, but it s a long shot. These are picky, old-fashioned voters in states like Pennsylvania and Missouri. Bottom line: Softening the American voters  negative attitudes about socialism will take much longer than nine months.4)  His single-payer proposal would require raising taxes on the middle class.  I m with Reich and Sanders on this one. It s a bogus argument, pushed by skeptics and Hillary supporters alike. According to Sanders  numbers, middle class families would pay less per year for healthcare and therefore end up saving money in spite of a modest tax hike. The trouble, however, is getting Congress to support a tax hike on the middle class. See also #2.5)  His plan for free college tuition would mean colleges would be run by government rules.  I haven t heard any Democratic skeptics saying this, but I might ve just missed them. Nevertheless, I again agree with Sanders and Reich here. There s nothing in Sanders  proposal, or Obama s two-year-college plan, for that matter, showing that colleges would have to kowtow to the federal government.6)  He s too old.  Reich believes 74 is the new 64 and, honestly, I m not concerned about Bernie s age at all. As long as his would-be vice presidential nominee is strong, it s a non-issue. However, this will be an area the Republicans will use to attack Sanders, but it won t matter all that much. John McCain s age was only modestly relevant due to his battle with skin cancer. Sanders, on the other hand, seems quite energetic and healthy.So, all told, three of Reich s counterpoints to skeptics aren t particularly strong, while one counterpoint against middle class tax hikes is directed at hardline pro-Hillary people (not mere skeptics) as well as Republicans, and the final two are counterpoints to arguments I haven t really heard coming from Bernie skeptics.All in all, it still seems like a Sanders victory and a subsequent Sanders presidency would be a long shot. Not impossible, but risky from the standpoint of overcoming significant electoral and political hurdles, as well as the current status of the (obscenely gerrymandered) Congress. Democrats ultimately have to decide whether Sanders  agenda is worth risking a possible Republican victory in November.// < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&#038;version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]&gt;Bernie skepticsHow to respond to Bernie skeptics? Watch our latest video to find out.Posted by Robert Reich on Tuesday, January 26, 2016Featured image via video screen grab