Those of us of certain age remember well the Reagan Democrats, mostly white guys with union cards who thought Reagan would be better at running the economy in their best interest. He'd cut their taxes, crack down on Welfare Queens, bring back the good old days, all that.
Today we've got the liberal establishment that wants the good old days of the Clinton Administration back and would prefer that those pesky Progressives stop rocking the boat. There are Republicans circling in the water after all. (Be afraid, be very afraid)
It's hard for them to actually criticize Progressive goals, it's always what they say they want for everyone, but like Reagan Democrats they seem to only want these things for themselves and just choose to believe that things can't be changed. They keep trying to knock down the standard bearer but that turned out to be harder than they thought, so mostly they've been concentrating on disparaging his supporters for refusing to listen to them and saying mean things.
For the past week or so the big push has been to discredit Progressive economics as simply pie in the sky nonsense. An independent economist reviewed the Sanders plan and calculates that it would produce a better than 5% growth in GDP. This has made certain so-called liberal economists gnash their teeth and pull out their hair. At least this is the story the NY Times is pushing, and their resident economist Paul Krugman is dutifully agreeing with their editorial assessment. I always wondered about somethings Krugman would say and now I know.
Not that any of these so-called liberal economists have made any actual analysis of Bernie's plan themselves. The gist of the ridicule they heap on Bernie revolves around the fact that they've been saying since the early 90s that this level of growth is impossible. With Reaganomics continuing in full effect it has been impossible. They compare it as being equal to Jeb Bush's ridiculous claims that he could guarantee 4% annual growth based solely on more tax cuts for the rich & because he had 4% growth as Governor of Florida during his brother's housing bubble.
I would think liberals could see the difference between the Republican's schemes to capture more of our wealth by funneling money to themselves and a comprehensive plan to actually do again the things that built this country. I guess it's hard to tell the difference if you're being paid not to see it.
Twitter @BruceEnberg - Where we see things as they are for free.
