Imagine how nice it'd be if modern politics involved that kind of thinking: doing popular things that are widely supported by the populace in order to take it off the table as an advantage for your opponent.
It's such a ridiculous struggle to get basic but popular policies through these days. It gums up the whole political process and helps make people disenchanted about the whole thing.
They get away with it because of the fact that while the majority of Americans do support everyone having health insurance, they are not in favor of the complete elimination of private insurance options. Interestingly, Germany does actually have private insurance options as well as a federal health care system.
I wasn't thinking of healthcare specifically with my comment. I mean the stuff that is just bluntly popular, like increasing the minimum wage. Or expanding abortion rights: if anti-abortion cannot even get a majority in Kentucky, it's obvious that pro-abortion is wildly popular policy. I just did a quick search and free lunch for school students looks to be wildly popular based on polls. Infrastructure spending has always been popular too.
These are basic things that should pass legislatures in a walk. But they do not. It's an insane, grueling fight to make anything happen; if it weren't for ballot initiatives a lot of them wouldn't happen at all.
Correct. Just like FDR did. But most conservative politicians (which Bismarck was but FDR was not) don't follow that logic and instead oppose socialists' calls for universal health care coverage.
He also very explicitly wanted to kneecap the Social Democrats by cribbing their most popular policies
True that
Imagine how nice it'd be if modern politics involved that kind of thinking: doing popular things that are widely supported by the populace in order to take it off the table as an advantage for your opponent.
It's such a ridiculous struggle to get basic but popular policies through these days. It gums up the whole political process and helps make people disenchanted about the whole thing.
They get away with it because of the fact that while the majority of Americans do support everyone having health insurance, they are not in favor of the complete elimination of private insurance options. Interestingly, Germany does actually have private insurance options as well as a federal health care system.
I wasn't thinking of healthcare specifically with my comment. I mean the stuff that is just bluntly popular, like increasing the minimum wage. Or expanding abortion rights: if anti-abortion cannot even get a majority in Kentucky, it's obvious that pro-abortion is wildly popular policy. I just did a quick search and free lunch for school students looks to be wildly popular based on polls. Infrastructure spending has always been popular too.
These are basic things that should pass legislatures in a walk. But they do not. It's an insane, grueling fight to make anything happen; if it weren't for ballot initiatives a lot of them wouldn't happen at all.
Correct. Just like FDR did. But most conservative politicians (which Bismarck was but FDR was not) don't follow that logic and instead oppose socialists' calls for universal health care coverage.
That's how the system is supposed to work, though. Sometimes you don't have to win an election to get some of your policy agenda enacted.