But they made things better.

[elisi]

Obama’s Critique of Sanders

This is slightly mis-labelled. The president was not attacking Sanders’ ideology of fairness. But he was clearly separating himself from Sanders’ dogmatic insistence on revolutionary transformation.

And it just got to me. I dunno. Just that note of hope, of acknowledging the progress... It got to me.

Comments

[owlboy]

First/most upvoted comment on the article says everything that needs to be said

[elisi]

But it's not a solution.

[owlboy]

But electing the same corrupt people who have been causing all the problems of the last few decades is? Alrighty.

[elisi]

“It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"

Trump is the wrong lizard.

Bernie is great, but he's not a lizard, I don't think, and thus can't get the other lizards to follow his ideas.

[owlboy]

Dude if you want to talk about whose more likely to get bipartisan support, Bernie has an objectively better record in that area. Conservatives loathe the Clintons even more than they loathe Obama, you think the Republican congress is actually going to work with them?

[elisi]

Bernie's plans seem to consist of 'revolution'.

I like him. But I don't think he can possibly win.

[owlboy]

That's pretty much a non-answer to what i said

[elisi]

Politicians are lizards. Hillary is the lizard with the best shot at beating Trump, ergo, people will vote for Hillary.

Hopefully.

I don't think Bernie can - if he can't even beat Hillary now.

ETA: Also, to go back to the article, I don't think Bernie's approach can work. Not in America, where people will actively vote against stuff that benefits them.

[owlboy]

It works in every other first world country. You live in one where it works.

Americans are so dumb they deserve the system they have? I don't think so.

[elisi]

It works in every other first world country. You live in one where it works.
I meant, that Hillary is good at compromise, Bernie less so. Which is what the article is all about.

Americans are so dumb they deserve the system they have? I don't think so.
Obviously not, and that's not what I said. But many have this entrenched belief that somehow welfare will make them personally less well off, rather than see it as a safety net that will catch them if they fall. And speaking of my country, the government are busy widening all the holes so more and more people fall through. :(

It's all very depressing. And Trump makes it moreso.

[owlboy]

>>I meant, that Hillary is good at compromise, Bernie less so. Which is what the article is all about.

The thing is, this is objectively untrue if you look at each candidates history, which I already pointed out.

[lynnenne]

Thanks for sharing that. It reminds me of a lot of the "change management" issues that my company is dealing with right now. Change is slow, and incremental, and frustrating, but when I look at where we are now compared to a year ago, I can see so much progress - and it makes me proud of everything we've accomplished. We couldn't have done that if we hadn't listened to, and gotten buy-in from, other departments outside our own.

[elisi]

There is another article (which I'll need to find) which talks about this in detail. The way change on a big scale must be slow, or it won't work. The systems are too complicated.

And I'm happy your company is going forwards. :)

[yourlibrarian]

I wanted to start by opening your eyes to the moment you are in. If you had to choose one moment in history in which you could be born and you did not know ahead of time who you were going to be, what nationality, or gender, what race — whether you would be rich, poor, gay or straight, what faith you would be born into — you would not choose 100 years ago. You would not choose the 1950s, the 1960s, or the 1970s. You would choose right now.

Truth.

[elisi]

*nods*