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**JUNE 29, 2021**

Meyerson on TAP

Bernie, and Some Books

The punditocracy is overdue on acknowledging just how well Bernie
Sanders plays the game of realpolitik. The man knows how to push ideas
into public consciousness, how to articulate the inchoate yearnings of
millions of his compatriots, how to leverage his proposals so they have
clout, and how-and when-to settle. His decades-long push for
Medicare for All has won over much of the Democratic Party; he had no
hesitation voting for Obamacare even when it lacked a public option; and
his push for M4A just continued with renewed force. In Bernieworld, the
perfect is not the enemy of the good, even though no one campaigns more
assiduously for the perfect.

Bernie's eye for the Big Chance and appreciation for the Realizable
has only grown since the Democrats took the Senate and the White House
in January, and he ascended to the chair of the Senate Budget Committee.
His proposal for a $6 trillion reconciliation package is the most
far-reaching set of quasi-social democratic reforms since New Deal
Democrats established Social Security and the WPA in 1935. And by coming
in with such a substantial sum-$6 trillion-he's knowingly provided
ample opportunity for his less enlightened moderate colleagues to
whittle the package down and still end up with groundbreaking advances
in social rights and provision and in climate mitigation.

The Sanders Sense of the Possible is also illustrated by his proposal to
lower the age of Medicare eligibility to 60. Polls have shown that the
65-and-then-somes currently on Medicare are cool to expanding the pool
of recipients, fearing that such expansion will diminish existing
benefits to offset the cost of having more beneficiaries. To allay that
fear, and also because it's an element of rudimentary social decency,
Sanders has linked the expansion of recipients to an expansion of
benefits. His proposal also calls for Medicare to pick up the tab for
seniors' dental, hearing, and eyesight care, which costs have always
fallen on the seniors themselves, forcing them either to pay for
supplemental coverage or to go without. While this part of Bernie's $6
trillion proposal may well not make it into law this year, it has
established the model for how Medicare can be expanded-qualitatively
as well as quantitatively-without seniors viewing such expansion as a
threat.

Smart guy, that Bernie.

______________________________________________________________________

IF YOU'VE EVER WONDERED how our system of government has fallen short
of real small-d democracy and continues to fall short to this day (see,
e.g., the U.S. Senate), I have a book recommendation for you. In his
book **American Schism** , which goes
on sale today, Seth Radwell takes a hard look at the political ideas of
the Enlightenment philosophers whose writings had so large an influence
over our nation's founders. Some were democrats, some preferred
enlightened autocracy, and the legacy of this mishmash is on plain view
in, among other things, our Constitution. And if you're not as
confident in the merits of meritocracy as Seth is (and I'm not), may I
also recommend Michael Sandel's 2020 volume **The Tyranny of Merit**
. Two neo-Enlightenment
apostles, divided yet again.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter

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Nature Is Screaming to Prioritize Climate

Events in South Florida and the Pacific Northwest demonstrate that the
climate crisis is on our shores right now. BY DAVID DAYEN

The New Freedom Rides

Sixty years ago, activists boarded buses to ride through the South to
demand voting rights for Blacks. Today, their successors have been
compelled to do it again. BY LUIS FELIZ LEON

Exit, Voice, and Choice in the Pandemic

Paradoxically, COVID put a lot of people out of work but also gave them
a lot of new options. That might be efficient for both the economy and
for personal dignity. BY ROBERT KUTTNER

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