As some 17 Democrats have announced their intention to run for their party’s 2020 presidential nomination, launched fundraising campaigns and begun to make stump speeches across key primary states, it’s clear that the progressive wing of the party is in the ascendency.
While Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign for the White House was unsuccessful, he garnered wide support for his bold policy prescriptions to address long-standing economic issues, such as his advocacy for a Medicare for All universal health care system, free tuition at public colleges and moving the nation to a $15 hourly federal minimum wage. Many of the announced candidates in the 2020 campaign have embraced Sanders’ proposals as their own.
Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, joined Between the Lines to discuss these progressive proposals, rising inequality in the U.S., and the bipartisan support that exists for many progressive initiatives.