Re: Democratic Challengers 10: If we stop fighting Nazis, the world will die.
Let's say he becomes #46 and gets swept into office with a Senate majority as well. I still don't expect anything he does to be all that radical, because his proposals will get trimmed down by the moderate majorities in Congress, just like Obama's were.
Agreed entirely. Sanders will primarily be defined by what he doesn't do. He won't continue
the Heists. He won't continue to appoint the hand-picked choices of the 1% class to the courts. It would be a respite from business as usual, and business as usual is destroying the country.
It would also demystify democratic socialism for all but those who are too far gone to save. Many Americans have been trained by decades of psychological terrorism to regard any worker's movement as Stalin and Mao and purges and death camps and breadlines. The experience of Western Europe is completely the opposite of that: democratic socialism is far, far better for the eocnomy as a whole and of course for the micro-economics of families than American plutocracy. An avowed democratic socialist presidency would demonstrate the world doesn't end and the monsters under the bed aren't real. This is why the parasite class will do anything to prevent it from happening. The emperor is about to be shown as being naked.
The fact is socialism is a more efficient and prosperous economic system than capitalism. The US was the one great exemplar of capitalist wealth, but the American economic expansion of the 19th century was built on having free land (manifest destiny) and free labor (slavery, infinite immigration). When we ran out of both of those we went into a tailspin that only socialism (the New Deal) saved us from. And now that we backed out of socialism (Reagan et al) we have returned to the stagnation that is the inevitable result of inequality and plutocracy. Capitalism isn't just wrong because it's immoral. It's also wrong because it doesn't work.
The masses of the American people, despite 100 years of propaganda, basically understand this in their heart of hearts because whenever times are tough they instinctively work together to help the weakest (socialism); they do not stomp on the faces of the immiserated and hold their kids hostage (capitalism).
Let's say he becomes #46, but doesn't get the Senate majority (the most likely scenario if he does win) and so he's stuck dealing with Yertle the Turtle. That's at least 2 years of gridlock - blocked bills, blocked judicial nominations, and nothing getting done.
This is true of any Dem. The only way to "get things done" with a Republican Senate is to have a Republican president, and then the "things" that get done will be malevolent.