Boldness: The Bernie vs Hillary Argument

Counsels Caution: Acceptance of the Real World

Says We Will Never Get Change If We Don't  Try

Writing in Salon, Robert Reich gets at the essence of the choice for Democrats and the nation. Here's the link.

Robert Reich in Salon   



What he is basically saying is we have tried the working within the system approach for 7 years with President Obama and the guys trading credit default swaps at Goldman Sacks and Morgan and all the Wall Street firms are still making billions and still behaving as if their ponzi schemes are not hurting everyday people. 

The Republicans still control Congress and have stymied every effort to actually govern.

The T Party, like the Dixiecrats before them, have the power to derail efforts at any meaningful reform.

Invoking Teddy Roosevelt who busted the trusts and got a progressive tax system which taxed the rich more than the poor, Reich says sometimes you have to aim high to hit the target.

When I was in college, we all hated the system we labored under which meant the first elective course I got to take was in my senior year after satisfying all the requirements for my major, my pre medical course and "distribution" requirements to insure I had a "well rounded" education.  The whole idea of education had been corrupted by the pursuit of good grades.  Ira Magaziner came around with the idea that education ought to do more than just prepare a resume for use as a merit badge in applying for jobs or graduate school and he proposed a system where grades were optional. This was radical. A revolution. Everyone said it would never get past the faculty, not to mention the president of the university and the board of trustees, but events conspired and it was adopted and the result was that education improved at the university and the school, which had been the last choice for students applying to the eight schools in the Ivy League moved up to fourth, after Harvard, Yale and Princeton.  

So sometimes, revolutions do succeed and when they do, results can exceed expectations.

It hasn't happened often in American politics, but it has happened: Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, all Presidents who led successful, if painful revolutions. 

Are we ready for a revolution?