How crazy left does a president have to be, if Barack Obama isn’t considered “progressive?” According to Comedy Central host Larry Wilmore, the United States hasn’t had a progressive president since Lyndon Johnson.
That wasn’t good enough for his guest, actress/activist Susan Sarandon, who insisted you had to reach all the way back to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
During a panel discussion on Bernie Sander’s New York primary loss to Hillary Clinton, Wilmore advised his disappointed Sanders-supporting guest “the Democratic Party is not a progressive party. The last time the Democratic Party was a progressive party was when LBJ was president.” To which Sarandon retorted: “Try FDR.”
The following exchange was aired on the April 20 edition of Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore:
SUSAN SARANDON, ACTRESS: But maybe, you know, they don’t want a third party but the DNC has made it very clear that they don’t let any progressive in. You know so maybe it’s time to have a third party.
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LARRY WILMORE, HOST: But you know, but the Democratic Party is not a progressive party. The last time the Democratic Party was a progressive party was when LBJ was president.
SARANDON: Try FDR.WILMORE: Well no. LBJ was a progressive president right?
SARANDON: But I’m saying I think he was kind of pushed into it. I mean he wrote a lot of fabulous legislation. Yeah.
WILMORE: If you sign it, then you did it.
SARANDON: That’s true.
WILMORE: You know you gotta give him credit for it, right? If you don’t sign it then I think it’s different
SARANDON: But we didn’t have the Koch brothers. We didn’t have all these people just messing with the whole system, you know. It’s impossible now. And you’re asking the Congress that’s benefitting from all of this to vote against it and that’s never gonna happen unless you get a Bernie Sanders in.
