There's absolutely a lot of resistance to getting off the teat of corporate megadonors, but progress has definitely been made and will continue to be made; Bernie demonstrated it was possible to go the distance with aggregate small donors and popular policy, as did Ocasio Cortez who was massively outspent by her opponent Crowley and received essentially no media coverage until after she won in an upset, and Ojeda with his 32 point narrowing of the votation gap in West Virginia; there are other examples of course, but these are some of the more notable ones. Many other Dems have also sworn off corporate contributions, inspired by their example, and the trust/popularity engendered by the move (like Cory and Kristen; corp dollars flows to them in other ways, but it's a start). Unfortunately, to really effect meaningful and lasting change out into the long term, a constitutional amendment will need to be made that either clarifies that political spending isn't speech, or makes an exception to the first amendment in the case of political spending per the historically idiotic and dangerous SCOTUS ruling of Buckley v Valeo 76. To that end, a state convention will probably be required, and there are good, progressive aligned groups like WolfPAC working diligently towards this.
I do.
So much has changed since Hillary boldly and probably foolishly declared that single payer will never happen, like Medicare for All now becoming a mainstream idea, largely thanks to Bernie. Whether or not older voters support it (and it seems that they in fact do), a substantial majority of Dems and voters at large do; even a narrow majority of Republicans!
New Poll: Majority of GOP Voters Support ?Medicare For All? |
https://theglobepost.com/2018/12/04/medicare-for-all-support/
That said, I'm not sure why Medicare/Medicaide getting essentially expanded to cover the rest of the country is going to make a 65+ year old go up in arms; it's not like their coverage is being taken away or otherwise degraded, particularly since every proposed roll out I've yet seen is gradual, and phases in from the 65 year cut off point in an effort to minimize disruption.