right and left up and down

Super Tuesday came and went yesterday. There was a broadly shared, nervous expectation that Sanders would win big especially in the western states, collect many more delegates for the convention in Milwaukee than Biden who won a decisive victory a few days ago in South Carolina, and end up being the nominee. I wished for that outcome even though I don’t agree with some of Sanders’ suggestions and hoped he would tone down his message if he won. But it is Biden who clearly was chosen by the majority of democrats and mainstream media to represent them against Trump and defend entrenched interests this fall. Bloomberg declared for Biden, as did Klobuchar and Buttigieg last week, which probably helped some during the vote, as did the rain of media articles warning about a Sanders nomination… It would be nice to know the proportion of voters by revenue and age bands this Super Tuesday. In any case, it looks as if the attention given to cultural and morality matters in the past forty years continues to be an effective cover for both the Republican and Democratic parties, though from different so-called right and left angles. There remains a fundamental agreement about accepting the mechanisms of market capitalism as they developed under the aegis of the USA (see Rubin two days ago in his NYT piece), the absence or relative weakness of regulations in business and banking, the continuation of private health insurance programs, the role of the Federal Reserve, and need to go deeper in reshaping federal programs, except war (= aka Department of defense). Social Security and Medicare are in the crosshairs of Republicans and could be retooled with the help of the right of the Democratic party. How far private banking would go in replacing federal programs would be the object of intense discussions. It could happen with the assent of many people at the helm of the Democratic and Republican parties. I suppose that Biden would be willing to negotiate an arrangement with McConnell if it were presented as an element of freedom. Social Security and Medicare would be transformed into what the 401K funds, education costs, and health have become: fragile, exposed replacements for older public pension, education, and health systems in which the risk used to be much more broadly shared (except for health). The stench of Trump gone, one would be relieved for a while to breathe the fragrant air of ethical capitalism.