Let's talk today about the real practical
important differences between Bernie Sanders
and Elizabeth Warren.
Now, I've been planning to do this for a while,
but for whatever reason, over the weekend
I started, I saw on Monday morning I had a
bunch of tweets saying, David, you are repeating
the idea that Bernie and Warren are the same.
Now I have no idea where this came from.
I've been super clear that Bernie and Warren
are two different candidates from the beginning
whose policy positions are different, whose
political ideology is different.
Um, I've been talking about it for more than
a year or since whenever this topic first
came up.
So someone seems to be confused, but I have
said that Bernie and Warren are the two most
progressive candidates when it comes to the
overall package of ideas in the context of
2019 politics and how we sort of evaluate
the progressiveness of ideas.
So let's get right into it.
The biggest difference between Bernie Sanders
and Elizabeth Warren is the origin of their
political ideology and their general philosophical
positioning.
Now I, I'm not going to focus as much on micro
policy in this segment.
I will mention some specific policies, but
a lot of those micro policies, number one
can change and number two rarely do campaign
promises become administration accomplishments.
In reality, it's not how politics works.
Of course we look at what a candidate says
they want to do, it matters, but what really
is an issue for me here with the Bernie versus
Warren thing is the source and a underpinnings
of their political ideologies.
It's sounds theoretical but yet it's practical
because the most stark difference today between
Bernie and Warren is in the ideological area.
Although I will get to the policy differences.
Bernie and Warren end up domestically very
close on policy, although not the same and
on foreign policy there are more differences
which we'll talk about, but Bernie Sanders
has ended up where he is today on the political
spectrum being pulled from his 1960s 1970s
sort of hippie, democratic socialist origins.
Elizabeth Warren, on the other hand, has been
pulled to the left over her lifetime from
a much more moderate leaning, which included
actually being a registered Republican for
a lot of her life, particularly more moderate
on economic policy.
On the one hand, Bernie is more of a destroy
the system to build it back up mentality where
Elizabeth Warren is more of a fixed the problems
we have and improve the system that's already
in place by tweaking it.
And that is a massive difference.
That difference is way bigger than the difference
on any micro policy issues.
Now on a lot of policies and issues, their
immediate next step if they were to be president
is the same but not always.
So let's talk about some more specifics when
it comes to reducing inequality.
Elizabeth Warren has taken a much more micro
approach, which doesn't mean it's less ambitious,
but it is much more micro, which is let's
put in a wealth tax with the broader infrastructure
remaining as it is now in terms of the number
of dollars that Elizabeth Warren's proposed
wealth tax would bring in towards reducing
inequality.
It is massive.
It is significantly impactful, but the approach
is very different.
Bernie Sanders has talked about other ideas
including progressive taxation and a variety
of other programs, but his approach is one
where he positions the current systems as
fundamentally wrong.
We're Elizabeth Warren doesn't so much consider
the system's wrong.
She feels the system is incorrectly configured
and to use like a computer analogy, she wants
to change some of the settings of the system.
Healthcare has been a topic of much discussion
and I admit it's not completely transparent
where Elizabeth Warren exactly lands on the
healthcare issue.
But the way I'd characterize it is Elizabeth
Warren is not as in favor of Medicare for
all as the path forward as his Bernie Sanders
with Bernie.
We know it's Medicare for all.
He has a plan for Medicare for all.
He has a plan for how to pay for Medicare
for all, and that is his path.
Elizabeth Warren, including in the last debate
has expressed support for Medicare for all.
Uh, but it's very clear that she is much more
malleable in terms of the range of solutions
that she would accept.
She said she supports different ways of getting
to universal healthcare, which is very different
than what Bernie Sanders says, which is Medicare
for all is the way.
Let's talk about foreign policy a little bit.
And I, I'm still of the mindset that much
like in 2016, one of the primary criticisms
that I could make of Bernie Sanders, bearing
in mind that he's one of my top candidates
is that he has at least not expressed deep
knowledge of a number of important foreign
policy issues.
Now, the critique of Elizabeth Warren is not
drastically different when it comes to the
depth of knowledge that has been expressed.
Now that being said, uh, I have not heard
much from Bernie about, for example, what
should our relationship to China be?
I know he's talked about it a little bit around
the edges, but I've not seen in detail what
the, the uh, idea there should be.
I've heard more from Elizabeth Warren on that
issue.
Although her position is relatively status
quo on our relationship with China with foreign
policy, it again is a difference of philosophical
approach.
Bernie Sanders is what has been sometimes
called a democratic globalist when it comes
to applying a lot of the same anti-authoritarian,
egalitarian inequality, reducing ideas to
our relationships with other countries.
Elizabeth Warren exists in a much more moderate
space.
When it comes to foreign policy taking a sort
of standard center left approach on a lot
of these foreign policy questions.
Now, to be perfectly honest, I only find Elizabeth
Warren's policy ideas, um, uh, moderately
different from those of, for example, a Barack
Obama in a lot of areas.
I think domestically there's a big space there
between Warren and someone like Obama, but,
uh, when it comes to foreign policy, I don't
see Warren as nearly as much of a progressive,
uh, as we would potentially like to see.
Bernie has been much more vocal about his
opposition to American support for the Saudi
war in Yemen than Elizabeth Warren has.
I, I'd want to hear from Elizabeth Warren
more about her position on that.
A major difference.
Bernie voted against increasing the Pentagon's
budget.
Elizabeth Warren voted for it.
That is a fundamental difference in terms
of the view of how we should be managing this
issue of um, the, the financial enabling of
American foreign policy and interventionism
Bernie is much more active in talking about
American foreign policy going back decades
and how that relates to the decisions we have
to make today.
Then has, uh, then Elizabeth Warren has been,
Bernie talks about the history of American
foreign policy in a way Warren does not, and
this is really important because to make good
decisions today about American foreign policy
in order to avoid dropping us into the same
problems that American foreign policy has
caused in the past, you have to understand
the history of American interventionism and
foreign policy.
Bernie has much more often talked about the
destructive force of American interventionism
around the world of military power over the
last 60 or 70 years by the United States and
the effect that it has had globally.
I've heard a lot less from Elizabeth Warren
on that.
Now on domestic policy, I know that there
are many difference.
We could talk about differences.
We could talk about Bernie has said ban for-profit
prisons and end cash bail.
For example.
I looked and wasn't able to find Elizabeth
Warren taking that position.
Um, and she may not be for those things and
these are not insignificant, but relative
to their broader ideological differences,
I don't know that that is where the focus
should be.
In talking about the difference between these
two.
So what's our conclusion?
Is Bernie more progressive on a number of
issues?
Absolutely.
There's no question about it.
They are not the same.
Would Elizabeth Warren still be the most progressive
president of the modern political era?
If she were to be president of the United
States?
Of course she would.
While I would love to see a Bernie presidency,
am I going to smear Elizabeth Warren as a
tool of the establishment or as anything other
than someone who would also be the most progressive
president in the modern era?
No, I'm not going to do that.
And I, you know, I will tell you that her
origin story is less progressive than Bernie's.
She's more moderate on some issues and both
of these folks would be the most progressive
presidents of the modern political era period.
Now, what is not included here, and it is
a different analysis, is how likely each of
their respective policy positions are to be
made a reality.
If they were to be president of the United
States, and that's a topic for a different
day.
Tell me what I'm missing.
Tell me where I'm going wrong.
Tell me if I'm fundamentally misunderstanding
the differences between these two candidates.
