I know how to put it. I voted for Elizabeth Warren in 2020 because she was the only candidate who was not reactionary. Bernie is obviously reactionary with his form of anti-billionaire populism. Biden is no less reactionary by his stance being a nebulous “let’s all get along.” Warren actually stood for something independent of the republican stance. She was the only one with a real vision.
If you delved into the websites of the three candidates, Warren was the only candidate with detailed plans for how her policies would work. She had the policies ready to go, ready to be laid on the table in Congress. Sanders had a vague notion of universal health care like Canada, the model he points to since his state is on the border, but he didn’t lay out too many details beyond that.
Biden is very simple. We need to move to the center and Republicans will like us. Given how he is in his second term… oh wait… no… he became one of the least popular presidents in history on leaving office.
I think that Bernie would have been a better president than Joe Biden without question. I think he likely would have had more experienced and knowledgeable cabinet officials for foreign affairs than Biden did. I think he would not have fallen for the trap of Gaza, and not withheld Ukrainian aid. I doubt he would have withdrawn from Afghanistan. But beyond that, I don’t think he would have been very successful in getting legislation passed through Congress. He likely would have had longer coattails than Biden, and if he did not have the crisis of the Taliban taking over Afghanistan in his first year, he likely would have won his midterms, and likely reelection if he chose to run in 2024. But beyond that, I don’t think much legislation would pass under President Sanders.
President Warren is a different animal. I am certain her foreign policy picks would have been far more experienced than the clowns Biden had running the show. She would not have fallen for Netanyahu’s lying, and she is far more supportive of Ukraine than any President has been since the fall of the Soviet Union. The war would be over by the time the 2024 election came around, giving her a major foreign policy victory, and a second term. She has advocated against the filibuster since before she was elected to the Senate and would make it her top priority, which would open the floodgates to the rest of her proposals. I don’t think everything would necessarily be rosy under her term, the media would have hated her just as much as they hated Obama, our only center-left president since LBJ. But the reality is that no matter how much the pundits would have hated her, she has already proven she is more capable of bringing results than Biden has been over their careers and would have been a better president than Biden.
Because she is not a reactionary politician.
If Democrats want to win a trifecta in 2028, I think we need to let go of Sanders/Biden reactionary politics. We need to abandon the failed Biden/Trump foreign policy. We need to move towards a more progressive direction that defines positive goals for what we want, not just in relation to Republicans. Our next president needs to be unforgivingly Atlanticist. Our next President needs to work on abandoning the government boat known as ESTA and reintroducing visa-free travel between the United States and the rest of NATO. Our next President needs to not just be unforgivingly an Atlanticist but cultivate our relationships with our Latin American allies, bringing Mexico back into the Rio Pact, and reforming our immigration system, erasing the damage George W. Bush did.
Only then will America be able to succeed.