Bernie Sanders wants to debate GOP candidates now to expose their unpopular ‘reactionary agenda’

[octoberlib]

The Democratic presidential candidate appeared Tuesday night on The Rachel Maddow Show, where he said the media’s focus on triviality allows GOP candidates to “get away with murder,” reported Mediaite.

Sanders said Republican candidates want to offset “huge tax breaks for billionaires” with “massive cuts” to programs that help millions of American, including Medicare, Medicaid, and – in the case of likely candidates Jeb Bush and Chris Christie – Social Security.

“They get away with that stuff because a lot of people don’t know what they are talking about,” he said.

Sanders said he would like a debate between Democrats and Republicans during the primary season so he could “confront them honestly and say to their face” what voters should know about their governing intentions.

“When so many seniors are struggling right now, how in God’s name are you talking about cutting Social Security when we should expand it?” Sanders said he would ask. “When kids can’t afford to go to college now, why are you talking about cutting Pell Grants by $90 billion? Why are you on the payroll of the Koch brothers and other billionaires rather than addressing the needs of working families?”

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/bernie-sanders-wants-to-debate-gop-candidates-now-to-expose-their-unpopular-reactionary-agenda/

[kenfrequed]

1. It is brilliant strategy as well

Seriously, he wants to start the talks early about priorities in government and what we should be doing as a people and providing people an early contrast between competing ideas and ideologies. It means that some people might reasses their priorities and decide early on that the republican party is not doing them any favors. It may make people consider progressive ideas and force more progressive policy into the political narrative.

For the Sanders campaign it really is a perfect strategy. It would dramatically increase his own prominence as someone opposing the republicans and serve to highlight just how crazy some of the Republicans are. Some of the extremely low percentage republicans would happily leap at this bait in an effort to break the double digit barrier which actually, again helps the Democrats as a party more by making the republican dog-fight even more contentious.

Bernie's ability to use strategy and election tactics in this way while still sticking to his progressive guns impresses me even more.