Is the Era of Big-Program Liberalism Over?

Mark Schmitt wrote for the New York Times about the policies Bernie Sanders is advocating for in New  Hampshire:

Bernie Sanders and the policies he advocates may represent the future for many Democratic primary voters, but his basic theory of government is very traditional, dating to the New Deal.

Mr. Sanders gets cheers for these ideas, as he did from voters in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary with his resounding victory. But his view is being challenged by a new, more incremental liberalism, which centers on advancing liberal goals without big, universal programs — an approach being invented by President Obama and Mr. Sanders’s opponent, Hillary Clinton.

The essence of Mr. Sanders’s version of liberalism is government programs. Expansive initiatives that provide benefits to “a broad cross-class constituency,” as the Harvard political sociologist Theda Skocpol puts it, such as Social Security and Medicare, are not only good policy, they’re at the heart of liberal politics. They remind citizens of the essential role of government in providing security and economic opportunity. And they anchor voters to the party that backs those programs.