Hillary Clinton’s quiet revolution

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says we need a revolution.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says we all want to change the world.

That was one of the key differences on the debate stage at Wynn Las Vegas this week as candidates for the Democratic nomination gathered for the first time in the 2016 cycle.

Sanders has been clear from the start: The system is corrupt. Wealth is increasingly concentrated at the top, and too many of the people at the bottom are being left behind. We need to expand New Deal programs such as Social Security and Great Society programs such as Medicare.

And the only way to do that is to upend the current system with a political revolution that harnesses the political power of millions of people marching on Washington.

Clinton, by contrast, makes a defense of capitalism, after a fashion. She says we need a "new New Deal," but makes it clear that capitalism is very much a part of it. According to Clinton, if you work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to get ahead and stay ahead.

That's the basic bargain of America, she says.

So which is it? Is the game rigged, or can Americans still get ahead?

"Well, I think fundamentally there's no contradiction [in] saying that we're out of whack," Clinton said this week during an interview for the 8NewsNow program PoliticsNOW. "That periodically in American history, you can go back and look, power gets concentrated, inequality grows and we have to shake ourselves off and begin to make some changes to get back in to the basic bargain."

Clinton's program — equal pay for women, a higher minimum wage, paid leave for people to take care of sick kids and family members, preserving Social Security, etc. — is aimed at helping restore that basic bargain. "There will always be people who do better. That's just a fact of human nature," she said. "But nobody should feel in America they can't get ahead if they actually do make the effort."

But Sanders counters that people do feel that way, because it's happening more and more every day. People who work two jobs, but still have trouble paying bills because wages are too low. Students who struggle under a crushing load of debt.

"Brothers and sisters, our job is to end that rigged economy and create an economy that works for working people," Sanders told the students of Liberty University in a speech in September. "Now, when we talk about morality, and when we talk about justice, we have to, in my view, understand that there is no justice when so few have so much and so many have so little."

That's probably something Clinton would agree with, but her solution incorporates the economy rather than seeking to fundamentally reform it. And doing so might also help calm the anger in modern politics, too.

"We had partisan differences in the '90s, but we didn't have this anger. And why? Because the economy worked for everybody," Clinton said. "Now we have recovered jobs, but we haven't recovered income and we sure haven't recovered wealth, so I totally get why people are angry and frustrated. I share that anger and frustration.

"So I think it is my responsibility … to be constantly drawing the contrast [with Republican economic plans] and say, look, we have to make some investments, we have to make our country, in my view, grow in order to create jobs, to have rising incomes."

The question is, will we need a revolution to do that?

— Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist and co-host of the show PoliticsNOW airing at 5:30 p.m. Sunday on 8NewsNow. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at 702-387-5276 or SSebelius@reviewjournal.com.