The Political Revolution: Bernie Sanders' New Deal

[Shameless Lefty Hack]

No promises, but I'd love to do occasional stints as David Brooks (unless we're talking only TV? In which case I'll take a Dem Hack like Donna Brazile or David Gergen).

As for how Bernie beat HRC, I'd imagine it starts with a really convincing win in Nevada, plus the sort of really strong Latino support that would have required. That puts Chicago (and thus IL) into play alongside the sunbelt.

Warren (in exchange for VP nod) endorses right after NV, and so the more liberal sections of the establishment see their endorsement Overton Windows start to shift.

SC+ Super Tuesday 1 (The SEC primary) puts momentum back on Clinton's side, but Sanders (with heavy surrogate work from the senior senator and less enthusiastic support than happened historically from other state electeds) comes away with a solid win in MA in addition to the states he won historically.

For Bernie to have won, if he won NV, March 15 would be the major turning point. As mentioned, strong Latino support flips Chicago and so IL, and maybe Kasich has dropped out at this point, so all the Is that voted for him historically go to Bernie.

From that point on it's a long slog, but Bernie has proven that he belongs in the party, has enough support from electeds to seem legitimate in the eyes of loyal Dems, so he can compete in closed primaries.

Plus, after NV and March 15, the Clintons would probably panic, stop taking advice from the President (as they did after NH) and start firing people/tanking morale in their campaign. As they made more mistakes and inspired more fear in their campaign. This leads to negative press, which hurts performance which causes panic, etc etc etc.

[Confused Democrat]

2016 Senate Election Results:

Democrats: 54 (+10)
Republicans: 44 (-10)

2016 House Election Results:

Democrats: 220 (+32)
Republicans: 214 (-32)

Democrats picked up every seat they won in the real 2016 election (Trump vs Clinton) plus these 26 seats:

MN-2
MN-3
NE-2
CA-10
CA-21
CA-25
CA-49
CO-3
CO-6
FL-18
FL-26
IA-1
IA-3
ME-2
NY-19
NY-22
PA-8
PA-16
TX-23
VA-10
AZ-2
KS-3
UT-4
IN-9
MI-1
MI-7

------------------------
Authors Note: Sorry for being so inactive. I've been busy with school. I'll now be starting to update this TL more frequently.

[GoTfan]

Actually, I'd like to change my claim. I'd like Jonathan Pie.

[Confused Democrat]

November 9, 2016

Even though Bernie Sanders defeated Donald Trump with a massive landslide on election night, Trump, yet again, chose to break another US tradition and refused to concede the election. Bernie Sanders did not receive a phone call on election night, and Trump did not address his supporters. Instead, Trump sent out this series of early morning tweets:

The duo appeared jubilant as the press captured images of the two laughing as they walked down the Collonade of the White House.

Their meeting was mostly focused on how to move forward quickly with Sander's legislative agenda, but the makeup of Sanders' cabinet was also discussed. With newly minted Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate, Sanders wanted to learn from and avoid the mistakes that Obama made during his first term. However, there were also reports that Obama and Sanders shared a tense exchange about the fate of the TPP during their meeting, highlighting the fact that Bernie Sanders wasn't your standard issue Democratic politician.

Also, while President Obama met with President Elect Sanders, the Sanders-Warren Transition Team sent out a press release denouncing the statements Trump made on twitter earlier that morning:

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Trump Tower, New York City:

Later that night, thousands of peaceful protesters gathered outside of Trump Tower. It wasn't a planned protest or organized by any specific interest group. It seemed to spur out of blue and caught many people in the media and political establishment by surprise.

Throughout the night, protesters could be heard chanting things like "NO CONCESSION NEEDED" "THE REVOLUTION IS HERE," and "WE HAVE THE POWER." They're overarching message appeared to be that they didn't need or want validation from Donald Trump, and that they were the political revolution that elected Bernie Sanders and would change this country for the better. The atmosphere and mood in the crowd was not angry or desperate; instead it was electric, hopeful, and full of confidence. People were beginning to realize that they had the power to affect real change in this country, and they were putting the political establishment on notice.

Was this the power of Bernie Sanders political revolution coming to fruition? He seemed to think so...

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[Confused Democrat]

Btw, I'm claiming Morning Joe's Mika & Joe.

[NHI]

Great TL!

[Hoosier_Nick]

Great job! Sanders winning Indiana and the general . Evan Bayh winning

[America Needs R'hllor]

This timeline is cringe-inducing, to be perfectly honest.

Sanders would not win Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Arizona, and Montana. Sanders did HORRIBLY in the southern primaries, so Virginia could go Republican as well. Also, do you really think that many people would flock to a far-left SJW socialist like Sanders? Sanders came close to being the Democratic Goldwater; someone who's views are too radical for most of the party and despised by the establishment. Trump, believe it or not, is a more moderate Republican as he ran to the left of Cruz, Rubio, Paul, and others. Sanders was to Hillary's FAR left.

The VP picks are absolutely atrocious. There's no way that Trump would pick Christie post-Bridgegete and no way Sanders would pick an old woman from his state's southern border. Trump would still go with Mike Pence, while for Bernie I could see Tulsi Gabbard being a good pick. Warren? Well, you'll see Trump win MORE states than he did in our world.

I understand he's your favorite politician, but this just seems like a huge (and implausible) Anti-Trump #FeelTheBern wank. In my humble opinion, Bernie would've lost worse than Hillary did. At least Hillary had minority support.

Side note: John McCain losing reelection? Come on, that's way too unrealistic.  

Cool story.

Get out of my TL if you don't like it. You don't have show up and publicly take a dump in my thread like an asshat.

I have nothing against creativity, but I am a nut when it comes to realism and accuracy. Not trying to be an "asshat," but I think there are some logical changes to be made.

Many timelines are unrealistic, some perfectly good timelines, like the ones where Perot or Gary Johnson win. And in any case, a Bernie landslide was in the realm of possibilities.

[Confused Democrat]

November 10, 2016

MIKA:

In other news, yesterday- do I really have to say his name? I'm not saying it. *audible sigh* Yesterday, in an early morning tweet storm the former Republican nominee for President of the United States made a series of unfounded and and unsubstantiated claims about the results of our elections.

Claiming, without citing any evidence whatsoever, that millions of people voted illegally, that the voting machines were faulty, and calling into question the job performances of Secretaries of States all across the country.

He went on to call President-Elect Bernie Sanders illegitimate, and announced that he would be holding  a "major" press conference today an hour after the President-Elect's press conference at noon.

*audible sigh*

JOE:

This is unacceptable Mika.

For the former Republican nominee for President of the United States to call into question, without ANY evidence at all, the legitimacy of our country's elections is reckless, un-American, and frankly damaging to our democracy and it's many important democratic institutions.

The founding fathers are rolling in their graves.

MIKA:

They are, and I'm just going to say it...

The American people really dodged a bullet with this one, because this man appears to be mentally unstable, and I'm not joking when I say that.

This is NOT normal behavior.

JOE:

I will say this though.

The Sanders-Warren Transition Team's response to this whole debacle demonstrates exactly why the voters chose Bernie Sanders on election day. It promptly called out the former Republican nominee for lying and pivoted straight to the issues that got him elected.

Like they said. This is a distraction created solely for attention, and the American people do not have time for things like this.


Washington, D.C:

The Sanders-Warren Transition Team sent out another press release that morning naming a couple of people to key White House staff positions, and pushed up President-Elect Sanders press conference to 1:00 PM, the same time as Trump's scheduled press conference. Many pundits saw this rescheduling as a strategic move by the Sanders-Warren Transition Team.

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President-Elect Sanders' Press Conference:

President-Elect Sanders and Donald Trump both held their press conferences at 1:00 PM. Every major news network carried Sanders' press conference and largely ignored Donald Trump's.

Q: What do you make of Donald Trumps comments about the legitimacy of your election and the claims he made on twitter? Do you believe there is any validity to his claims?

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Q: I'm wondering if you could comment on recent reports that came out of your meeting with Barack Obama yesterday about a clash you had with him on the TPP. Are you still planning on withdrawing from the TPP completely or are you going to look to renegotiate it in some way?

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Q: But are you going to withdraw from the TPP?

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Q: Once you take office, do you plan on re-nominating Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court? If not, could you give us some names as to who you might be considering?

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The rest of President-Elect Sanders' press conference went on for about half an hour. A lot of the questions dealt with the makeup of Sanders' cabinet, but he didn't give any hints as to who he might be nominating. There were also some questions about the fate of Obamacare. Sanders appeared to dodge the questions and continued to reiterate his support for a Medicare for all single-payer system. It wasn't clear what his first major policy item was going to be once he took office, but pundits speculated that it would either be health care, infrastructure, or education.

Trump Tower, NYC:

Trump's press conference was largely panned as a joke and unserious by media pundits. Trump reiterated his claims that millions of people voted illegally and that the voting machines were faulty. However when he was pressed by reporters to answer wether or not he was going to file for voting recounts in any of the states that he lost, he remarked:

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The response raised eyebrows, and all but confirmed to the media that this was nothing more than a publicity stunt.

[NHI]

Keep it up!! Loving it.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I like the level of detail you're putting into this. 300,000 Bernie bros in Burlington aside this has been a very fun read!

[Confused Democrat]

December 01, 2016

The month of November went smoothly for President-Elect Sanders and his transition team. The hype and media coverage surrounding Donald Trump had largely died down. Trump never ended up filing for recounts in any of the states that he lost, and he never retracted his claims about the President-Elect being illegitimate and voter fraud. However, these things were irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. People were far more focused on and interested in the makeup of Sanders' cabinet.

The Sanders-Warren transition team was pumping out nominations relatively quickly compared to previous transition efforts, making seven key cabinet nominations in the month of November alone.

Sanders' Current Cabinet Nominations

Robert Reich, United States Secretary of the Treasury

Robert Reich is a political commentator, professor, and author. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997.

Reich has been the Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley since January, 2006. He was formerly a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and professor of social and economic policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management of Brandeis University. He has also been a contributing editor of The New Republic, The American Prospect (also chairman and founding editor), Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Tulsi Gabbard, United States Ambassador to the United Nations

Tulsi Gabbard has been the United States Representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district since 2013. Elected in 2012, she is the first American Samoan and the first Hindu member of the United States Congress and has served on both the Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Affairs. She served in a combat zone in Iraq. Gabbard served in the Hawaii House of Representatives from 2002 to 2004, becoming at age 21 the youngest woman to be elected to a state legislature at the time

Joseph Stiglitz, United States Secretary of Commerce

Joseph Stiglitz is an American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979). He is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and is a former member and chairman of the (US president's) Council of Economic Advisers.

Maura Healey, United States Attorney General

Maura Healey is the current Attorney General of Massachusetts, and the first openly gay state attorney general elected in America. She graduated from Harvard College in 1992. She then spent two years playing professional basketball in Austria before returning to the United States and receiving a Juris Doctor degree from the Northeastern University School of Law, in 1998. After clerking for federal judge A. David Mazzone, she worked in private practice for seven years, also serving as a special assistant district attorney in Middlesex County.

Hired by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley in 2007, Healey served as Chief of the Civil Rights Division, where she spearheaded the state's challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act. She was then appointed Chief of the Public Protection & Advocacy Bureau and then Chief of the Business and Labor Bureau.

Larry Cohen, United States Secretary of Labor

Larry Cohen is the former president of the Communications Workers of America, a 700,000 member labor union representing workers in Canada and the United States. Cohen has chaired major contract negotiations in both the public and private sectors, at employers including Verizon and AT&T, as well as Cingular Wireless (now AT&T Mobility). He is also a founder of American Rights at Work, and a member of the Democratic National Committee.

Patty Judge, United States Secretary of Agriculture

Patty Judge served as the Lieutenant Governor of Iowa from 2007 to 2011, and previously as the Iowa Secretary of Agriculture from 1999 to 2007.

Michèle Flournoy, United States Secretary of Defense

Michèle Flournoy is the former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, the seventh-ranking official in the U.S. Department of Defense, and in that role served as a principal advisor to U.S. Secretaries of Defense Robert Gates and Leon Panetta from February 2009 to February 2012.

She currently serves as a Senior Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group and as a Senior Fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She also serves as CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), which she co-founded with Kurt M. Campbell in 2007.

The Next First Lady:

Katie Couric sits down with the next First Lady, Jane Sanders

COURIC:

When was the first moment that it began to sink in that you were going to be the First Lady of the United States? Do you remember?

SANDERS:

To be honest, I don't really know if it's fully sunk in yet. I remember watching the results roll in on election night, and it was just an absolutely surreal moment when I saw my husband's picture pop up on the screen with a caption reading "President-Elect Bernie Sanders."

COURIC:

What were you thinking in that moment?

SANDERS:

It was a whole mess of emotions...

*chuckles and begins to tear up a bit*

Bernie and I turned towards each other, no words, and I just gave him the biggest hug I think I've ever given him in my life. *wipes away a tear* I remember thinking how much this must have meant to him, and how much this was going to mean to all of his supporters. I mean, Bernie came from nothing. And it's just so incredibly humbling to me that the people of this great nation chose him to be their President.

*sniffles and chuckles*

I'm sorry, you've got me crying now.

COURIC:

Don't worry, it's perfectly okay. It must have been an extremely emotional moment for you and your family.

SANDERS:

It was...

COURIC:

You're a successful woman. President of two colleges, key advisor to your husband, First Lady of Burlington, and now First Lady of the United States. How do you plan to imprint on your new role?

SANDERS:

Well, Bernie and I traveled all across this country during the campaign, and one thing we did everywhere we went was listen. We just listened. We listened to the many grievances facing the working and middle class of this country, and one thing that stuck out to me everywhere we went was the serious opioid epidemic that's gripping this country.

I think that's what my first priority is going to be as First Lady. Figuring out a way to solve this opioid epidemic.



 

[BuckeyeNut]

Gabbard at UN... Eugh. Better than Defense, I guess.

[GoTfan]

Jonathan Pie Segment called: Thank F**k!

*Pie walks in the studio*

Hello, Tim. How was Washington? Oh bad, was it? Why? *silence* Sanders won. I thought you'd say that. Sanders won, so the gravy train for your friends in 'Murica is now over and you feel sorry for them.

Tim, Sanders is one of the best hopes for the middle and working class in the US at the moment. Him and Jeremy Corbyn are the only left-wing politicians in the world at the moment who could alter the course of the world at the moment, whether it's the Middle East, the economy, trade,  infrastructure and more. What's that? *silence*

No, Tim, he does not want to end capitalism, you austerity-loving Tory f**khead. He wants to make sure that it works for everyone,  ot just the elite few, so thank f**k he won. Oh you don't like that Tim. Well I'll say it again.

Thank f**k Sanders won. *Straightens up for broadcast*

Well the victory of Senator Bernie Sanders in the US election . . . *fades out*

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

What do you want to tell me, Jonathan Pie?

[GoTfan]

What do you want to tell me, Jonathan Pie?

Look him up on YouTube. He's hilarious.

[GoTfan]

Bump

[NeederNodder]

Jonathan Pie Segment called: Thank F**k!

*Pie walks in the studio*

Hello, Tim. How was Washington? Oh bad, was it? Why? *silence* Sanders won. I thought you'd say that. Sanders won, so the gravy train for your friends in 'Murica is now over and you feel sorry for them.

Tim, Sanders is one of the best hopes for the middle and working class in the US at the moment. Him and Jeremy Corbyn are the only left-wing politicians in the world at the moment who could alter the course of the world at the moment, whether it's the Middle East, the economy, trade,  infrastructure and more. What's that? *silence*

No, Tim, he does not want to end capitalism, you austerity-loving Tory f**khead. He wants to make sure that it works for everyone,  ot just the elite few, so thank f**k he won. Oh you don't like that Tim. Well I'll say it again.

Thank f**k Sanders won. *Straightens up for broadcast*

Well the victory of Senator Bernie Sanders in the US election . . . *fades out*

Let's hope Corbyn beats May or Cameron(Not sure if Brexit happened in this timeline) in this timeline so we can see a broad rise in Left wing populism.

[Former President tack50]

Jonathan Pie Segment called: Thank F**k!

*Pie walks in the studio*

Hello, Tim. How was Washington? Oh bad, was it? Why? *silence* Sanders won. I thought you'd say that. Sanders won, so the gravy train for your friends in 'Murica is now over and you feel sorry for them.

Tim, Sanders is one of the best hopes for the middle and working class in the US at the moment. Him and Jeremy Corbyn are the only left-wing politicians in the world at the moment who could alter the course of the world at the moment, whether it's the Middle East, the economy, trade,  infrastructure and more. What's that? *silence*

No, Tim, he does not want to end capitalism, you austerity-loving Tory f**khead. He wants to make sure that it works for everyone,  ot just the elite few, so thank f**k he won. Oh you don't like that Tim. Well I'll say it again.

Thank f**k Sanders won. *Straightens up for broadcast*

Well the victory of Senator Bernie Sanders in the US election . . . *fades out*

Let's hope Corbyn beats May or Cameron(Not sure if Brexit happened in this timeline) in this timeline so we can see a broad rise in Left wing populism.

If the rise of left wing populism is widespread (ie not limited to just the US), you'd also expect Podemos winning the election in Spain and Melenchon winning in France for example. I'd say Brexit is still a 50-50 chance though (most left wing populists are still anti EU, even if not as fiercely as right wing populists). Depening on how far back you go, I guess in the UK the greens take 2 or 3 seats and there's a Labour government instead of a Conservative one (not sure if they'd get a majority though, probably not).

[Kingpoleon]

I don't think it effects the U. K. government. Maybe a German SDP-Green-FDP traffic light coalition will happen. In the Netherlands, I figure it's GL-D66-PvdA-SP-PvdD coalition. Not sure about PvdA/SP joining, but both are kind of key for a left-wing administration.

[Confused Democrat]

December 09, 2016

On the evening of December 8th the Sanders-Warren transition team began notifying the press that President-Elect Sanders was going to be making a major announcement tomorrow afternoon. The transition team was very vague regarding the specifics of the announcement, only detailing that it would have something to do with the filling of a cabinet post. This led to late night cable news shows dedicating most of their time to speculating who and what cabinet post President-Elect Sanders would be filling.

The general consensus from most reporters was that the announcement was most likely going to be Sanders' pick for Secretary of State, since that is widely considered to be one of the most high profile and import cabinet positions in any new administration.

The Sanders-Warren transition team was extremely tight lipped about the whole thing, but that didn't stop the media from putting together a shortlist based on sources "close to the transition team." By the end of the night heading into early morning, the list had been narrowed down to three names with one person emerging as the frontrunner.

Later that afternoon...



BREAKING NEWS: SANDERS NAMES HILLARY CLINTON AS NEXT HHS SECRETARY

The announcement came as an utter shock to those in the media establishment and even more so to the base that elected Bernie Sanders in November. Reporters and news anchors were genuinely perplexed by Sanders' choice of Clinton as HHS Secretary. She was no doubt highly qualified for the job, but Sanders campaigned on a medicare for all single payer healthcare system while Clinton campaigned on a more incremental approach bashing Sanders' plans as unrealistic and too idealistic.

What had changed?

Hillary Clinton delivered some relatively short but extremely powerful remarks. She talked about how Sanders renewed her faith in accomplishing single-payer healthcare in the United States and harkened back to the days when she first started working on healthcare reform in 1993. She reminisced about how she always dreamt big back then but lost that sense of idealism along the way as the years of constant gridlock grated on her.

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She capped off her remarks by giving Sanders a warm hug and thanked him again.

Her remarks were praised by those in the media as being honest, genuine, and moving. Her remarks were also well received by the public.

[Lord Admirale]

Interesting cabinet choices, however I think Sanders would really taint his image by putting Clinton in his cabinet. It'd resonate poorly with many of his supporters, the Republicans, and even some Democrats. Not to mention, her last post in a cabinet cost her political future.

[Pericles]

Interesting cabinet choices, however I think Sanders would really taint his image by putting Clinton in his cabinet. It'd resonate poorly with many of his supporters, the Republicans, and even some Democrats. Not to mention, her last post in a cabinet cost her political future.

I don't think most voters would care about Clinton being in HHS but it would be an olive branch to her supporters and she would be good for the job.

[President Underwood]

So, what magic wand made this impossibility become possible?

[Lord Admirale]

I wouldn't call Sanders anti-elite to be perfectly honest; Hollywood LOVED him and they're as close to a modern aristocracy as we'll get. The Sanders-Hollywood romance would resonate poorly with Middle America, similarly to the Clinton-Hollywood romance.