Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper isn’t exactly a household name, but he just made a point that will resonate with Americans across the country. In a heated exchange with Sen. Bernie Sanders during Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debate, Hickenlooper said that socialist proposals will “FedEx the election to Donald Trump.”
Hickenlooper says Bernie Sanders policies are too extreme. “You might as well FedEx the election to Donald Trump.” #DetroitDebate
— Karen Bouffard (@kbouffardDN) July 31, 2019
Hickenlooper mocks Bernie Sanders throwing his hands up #demdebates2 pic.twitter.com/f1Ylj9209b
— Brian Koerber (@bkurbs) July 31, 2019
Sanders’ retort was that some polls show him beating President Trump in a head-to-head. But Hickenlooper is completely right: Once Americans are faced with concrete policy proposals in a general election, socialist platforms such as Sanders’ will send them running toward Trump, albeit with their noses firmly pinched.
Take Sanders’ landmark Medicare for All proposal, for instance. A government takeover of healthcare would throw nearly 250 million people off their private insurance and abolish private insurance altogether. Plus, it would involve massive increases in taxes.
When voters know this, they aren’t interested.
According to Reason, one poll found that once informed that Medicare for All would eliminate private insurance, support drops to 37%. When voters are told it would cause treatment delays or wait lists, like what happens in Canada and the United Kingdom, support drops to just 26%.
Hickenlooper is right. If Democrats want to lose to President Trump in 2020, they should keep pushing for socialism, all guns blazing.
