Quote Originally Posted by xerxe View Post
Honestly, even if Sanders had managed to eke out a victory, it's not clear that his presidency would have been good for progressives in the long run. I'm sure he would have accomplished some important things, but his presidency, as a whole, would have been a damp squib. His policies would have been blocked by both Republicans and his own party, and these failures probably would have been spun as the failures of Socialism as a whole. The corporate media would have been relentless, and 'Brezhnev Sanders' could be primaried in 2024.

If he resorts to issuing executive orders in order to bypass the limitations imposed by his own parties, he would be painted as a tyrant along with the entire progressive movement.

The truth is that the Democratic and Republican parties are how they are because their voters want them to be. It isn't just corporations that have benefited from tax cuts, so have many wealthy suburbanites. Things will only change once the next generation of voters—which has been badly hurt by the current economic policies—dominates the electorate and votes according to its economic interests.
I agree with you that Sanders would've had a tough time passing policies in office. However, I don't know if the third paragraph can necessarily be said to be the full story (at least in poor, rural areas). Even in counties where Trump won and other Republicans won, progressive measures (such as marijuana legalization, support for M4A) had clear majority support among the populace. While some might say that this is due to lack of education among the voters about what the parties truly stand for, an equally valid conclusion would be that this was a vote of lack of confidence for Democratic leadership, even when very progressive measures have widespread support. But I guess at the same time, the general populace may not care enough about politics to care to instill new leadership/want "radical policies," so I don't really know Aside from that though, I 100 percent agree that change won't even be possible until younger voters have much more sway in elections.