This is nonsense. We have made dramatic gains in the progressive movement over the last two decades, which is the primary reason for the virulent reaction from the right which has now effectively captured much of the middle. I doubt that you were around for LBJ, Nixon and the like. Those days were characterized by much higher public confidence in public institutions, emphatically including government at all levels. The Vietnam war and Nixon’s criminality both in foreign policy and domestic operations destroyed much of that confidence, the death of the fairness doctrine and the rise of the right wing propaganda machine has destroyed much more.

You don’t think I have thoroughly studied the KFF research over the years? I notice you left out the study citing much stronger Democratic support for building on the ACA rather than trying to institute MFA, nor the finding that over 66% of Americans, including over 40% or Republicans favor a robust public option in competition with private insurance while only 56% favor MFA. Why is this important? Well, passing anything that has a small majority of support is much harder than passing something with strong majority support, for starters. But further down in the weeds, the strong rural/conservative bias in the Senate with 35 million Californians having fewer Senators by a factor of 10 than do the residents of Ut, Wy, Mo, S Dak, N Dak, Kan, Ok, Ark, Mo, Ky, straight poll numbers do NOT reflect political power, including the power to pass legislation.

Make no mistake, I will work hard for Bernie should he get the nomination, even though I think his MFA or bust position is a political loser and that he is not a particularly good salesman or coalition builder. It’s actually possible to be on the same page on policy and disagree strongly on the path to implementation. In a trauma center the most important priority is to stop the bleeding, and make no mistake, 4 more years of Trump, a likely 6/3 conservative split in the SCOTUS, a more severely packed federal judiciary, much more erosion in democratic traditions and norms, blockade on the federal level for climate change action, these are existential threats. Not immediately getting MFA or a similarly effective alternative for universal and affordable health care, particularly when it’s doubtful they are even on the table, is not.