The Atlantic

The Dissonance Between Sanders and His Supporters on Medicare for All

Some of his own organizers are willing to make a deal. Is their position a preview of his general-election message?
Source: Robyn Beck / AFP via Getty

Updated at 1:42 p.m. ET on February 25, 2020

Ask a Bernie Sanders backer why they support the Vermont senator, and their response will likely include an emphatic uttering of the phrase Medicare for All—the health-care proposal is the crux of Sanders’s support.

But some of Sanders’s most loyal organizers seem willing to make a deal. While they really do want the plan to pass, these supporters—grassroots leaders across the country whom I talked with over the past week—speak with more skepticism about its chances, often more so than the candidate himself. They said they are clear-eyed about how difficult achieving such gargantuan reform will be. And they would be pleased, if not completely

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