Posted on 02/14/2020 8:27:41 AM PST by karpov
...
Bernie Sanders isn’t actually a socialist in any normal sense of the term. He doesn’t want to nationalize our major industries and replace markets with central planning; he has expressed admiration, not for Venezuela, but for Denmark. He’s basically what Europeans would call a social democrat — and social democracies like Denmark are, in fact, quite nice places to live, with societies that are, if anything, freer than our own.
So why does Sanders call himself a socialist? I’d say that it’s mainly about personal branding, with a dash of glee at shocking the bourgeoisie. And this self-indulgence did no harm as long as he was just a senator from a very liberal state.
But if Sanders becomes the Democratic presidential nominee, his misleading self-description will be a gift to the Trump campaign. So will his policy proposals. Single-payer health care is (a) a good idea in principle and (b) very unlikely to happen in practice, but by making Medicare for All the centerpiece of his campaign, Sanders would take the focus off the Trump administration’s determination to take away the social safety net we already have.
Just to be clear, if Sanders is indeed the nominee, the Democratic Party should give him its wholehearted support. He probably couldn’t turn America into Denmark, and even if he could, President Trump is trying to turn us into a white nationalist autocracy like Hungary. Which would you prefer?
But I do wish that Sanders weren’t so determined to make himself an easy target for right-wing smears.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
1. Bernie Sanders calls himself a socialist. He has for a long time. He has been affiliated with other socialists and socialist institutions over the years. At some point, we should take the man at his word. Paul Krugman says Bernie Sanders is not a socialist. Bernie Sanders says Bernie Sanders is a socialist. Maybe Bernie Sanders has a say in that.
2. Senator Sanders does want to nationalize some major industries, health care prominent among them. He also proposes to enact political controls over other key industries, such as media and banking, that would amount to something close to nationalization. He would subject media companies’ business decisions to political control and would have the federal government own and operate banks.
3. Senator Sanders has expressed admiration for Venezuela. It is simply untrue to write, as Professor Krugman does, that he has not. Then-Representative Sanders went as far as to sign a letter of support for Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez in 2003. And the policies that Sanders proposes are not actually very much like Denmark’s, while his promise of “revolution” is familiar stuff from the experience of Venezuela and other similar cases.
Krugman is a putz.
“and social democracies like Denmark are, in fact, quite nice places to live, with societies that are, if anything, freer than our own”
Free? Sure, just don’t criticize Islam or try to homeschool your kids.
Well, Pauly-boy (term/lightly) there are planes flying to wonderful Denmark every day. You could grab one and leave this nasty old ‘Third-Reich’ America behind forever anytime you please.
The rebranding begins. Next we’ll hear he supported Reagan economics and free enterprise.
Why anyone would listen to Krugman about anything is beyond me.
Exhibit 1 - https://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/krugman-trump-global-recession-2016-231055
The defense rests your honor.
Bernie Sanders plays a Socialist on TV. In real life he’s a Communist.
Bernie is pretty much a communist.
As you state, he would partly nationalize a number of industries. Aside from medicine, which he would totally nationalize, he would give 20% of all company shares to workers (i.e, unions) plus require something like 40 to 50 percent worker (i.e., union) membership on corporate boards.
So, rather than immediate nationalization, it would be immediate half-nationalization.
Further government intervention would follow.
I think Krugman is actually using reverse psychology here to support Bernie, by saying that what Bernie wants is socialism as practiced in some still-prosperous small economy like Denmark’s.
Paul Krugman makes his readers stupider with every article he publishes.
Walks like a Duck, Talks like a Duck, even tells lies, just like a Duck!
Anyone who believes anything, the liar Krugman spews is a liberal idiot or a suffering never Trumpster pretending to be a conservative.
Krugman should join the Secret Service if Sanders gets Elected.
That way he can really take a Bullet for him rather than just making crap up for an Article.
Krugman is nothing but a left-wing undapants smear.
Still they let him go on and on, never changing.
He’s a commie duck!
I didn’t know he was still breathing.
Haven’t seen an article by him in a while. It was great.
Asks one of bernie’s right hand men what he is.
The one who thinks gulags are great and wants us dead.
I didn’t know Denmark was so brutal.
Wasn’t Williamson the so-called conservative who wrote that a lot of Rust Belt communities just need to disappear and their populations scatter to the big cities?
Anyway, I have to give him some grudging respect for this rebuttal.
Krugman ought to be a laughingstock but he’s got a Nobel Prize in economics. Back when Friedman and Hayek were still with us, that award still meant something. In my mind, Krugman reduced it to the level of something you’d find in a Cracker Jack box.
Proof you be a complete idiot..and still be a success.
Thanks for the link. Does anyone still respect this jerk?
ML/NJ
Denmark's brand of socialism works better than the Venezuela brand in large part because (a)Denmark's population is far more homogeneous and (b)Denmark's ruling class is content to live only slightly better than their hoi polloi.
Proof you CAN be a complete idiot..and still be a success.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.