AP: Pro-Sanders group rebranding into 'pragmatic progressives'

[PunkinPi]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Stinging from the disappointment of Bernie Sanders’ loss in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary, supporters pumped millions into the powerful advocacy group Our Revolution to keep the progressive fight alive and prepare for another swing at the White House.

But after another defeat in 2020, the 79-year-old Vermont senator is unlikely to run for president a third time. And the organization centered on his fiery brand of politics is undergoing a rebranding.

Rather than insisting on “Medicare for All” — Sanders’ trademark universal, government-funded health care plan — or the climate-change-fighting Green New Deal, Our Revolution is focusing on the more modest alternatives endorsed by President Joe Biden. Those include expanding eligibility for the existing Medicare program and curtailing federal subsidies for fossil fuel companies.

The shift reflects a progressive movement that is at a crossroads. Biden won the Democratic nomination last year by offering more centrist alternatives to much of Sanders’ agenda. Since then, progressive candidates have faced a series of electoral disappointments and are contending with anxiety from moderate Democrats worried that the party’s leftward shift could cost them control of Congress during next year’s midterm elections.

More here -> https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-climate-change-election-2020-campaign-2016-3c6a4d7b4ff078f5eced9e389ac0f644?utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_medium=AP_Politics

This gave me a chuckle, as I distinctly remember Hillary Clinton using the term "pragmatic progressive" in 2016 and being admonished by some for doing so.

[comradebillyboy]

1. Our Revolution has a long long way to go before I would trust them.

I rank them right up there with DSA and JD as groups I view with the utmost suspicion.

[PunkinPi]

2. Same. nt

[Walleye]

3. "If you want money for people with minds that hate" etc👋

[Nixie]

5. Amen. The brand building is getting even more desperate

now.

[mopinko]

4. healthcare was only ever about the brand w bernie.

he wanted bernie care. not one of them seem to understand how bad medicare rly is.
i'm as lefty as they come, but putting my life in the hands of assholes like we have now does not strike me as a greats plan. since it's inception, medicare has been nibbled at the edges, until you need 2 minute commercials on daytime teevee to explain to people that medicare alone isnt good enough.
and funding is a battle every damn year.

i realize that once it is everyone, and not just the 'useless eaters' that the gqp thinks people my age are, it changes things.
but bernie played himself by tying himself to a shaky ass program.
and so did these naive kids.

[AZProgressive]

7. I realize

M4A is different than the current medicare program but a lot of people have to wait or have little to no healthcare until they qualify for Medicare.

[mopinko]

8. if they had said- mediCAID for all, it would have been fine.

i know it's different from state to state, but in il, medicaid is good coverage.

[greenjar_01]

6. LOL

[Me.]

9. I Find This Hysterically Amusing

considering all their high hatting of everyone else for years now. Has anyone told Jaypal or AOC? Maybe now, they'll stop saying they won't vote for this or that unless...Of course they still have the JDs.

[LizBeth]

10. So basically they are adopting HRC and the liberal Democratic plans and trying to call it their own.

[PunkinPi]

11. Seems so, but they're still going to try primarying "moderate" dems.

[crickets]

12. Their primarying Democrats is what burns me up the most. Ugh. nt