Posted on 11/23/2015 9:34:29 AM PST by John Semmens
Contender for the Democratic presidential nomination Sen. Bernie Sanders (S-Vt) made an effort to define democratic socialism in a speech to Georgetown University students this week.
"Unlike the socialism imposed by Lenin or Mao, democratic socialism allows voters to select who will rule over them," Sanders said. "With the backing of the electorate, these rulers will redress the inequities stemming from inequalities that are no fault of the individual."
Sanders asserted "the notion that a person's hard work might entitle him to a disproportionate share of the world's wealth is just plain wrong. A person's ability to work hard is an inheritance that he did not earn. Likewise, a person's inability to work hard is also an inheritance he did nothing to deserve. Democratic socialism places the well-being of the much larger number of persons unsuited to hard work ahead of the minority unfairly gifted with this ability. It uses democratic means for seizing the outputs of those with greater ability and redistributing them for the benefit of those with greater need."
"In a family, the parents distribute the benefits of food, clothing, housing, and everything else to all their children," Sanders argued. "They don't allow some to prosper while others are neglected. Democratic socialism merely extends the concept of family to everyone under the regime's jurisdiction. Government assumes the role of the parent and metes out a fair share to all its children."
Sanders acknowledged the possibility that "some of the state's children might need to be disciplined for selfish behavior. It will be the government's job to ascertain the abilities of all and ensure that those who are capable are assigned an appropriate share of the chores of sustaining the national family. The collective good of the whole cannot be allowed to suffer due to shirking by the capable."
"The success of my campaign will show whether America is ready for democratic socialism," Sanders said. "My guess is that the needy outnumber the able by a considerable margin. Convincing this huge majority to vote for a system that will empower them to confiscate the surplus produced by the able is my biggest challenge."
if you missed any of this week's other semi-news/semi-satire posts you can find them at...
http://azconservative.org/2015/11/20/reid-and-obama-vow-to-block-bill-on-refugee-vetting/
That’s not satire.
This is unfair! I can’t help it if my parental units forced me to be a producer.
It was totally in my nature to be a useless misanthrope. It’s all my parental units fault I became productive. I need redress!
“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples’ money.” - Margaret Thatcher
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