Posted on 06/29/2019 3:35:13 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders unveiled his vision of “democratic socialism” during a recent speech at George Washington University. Unfortunately, he did more to confuse the meaning of democratic socialism than to clarify it.
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He claims that “unfettered capitalism” is causing economic problems in United States. The reality is that capitalism in the United States is far from “unfettered.”
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Sanders contrasts his democratic socialism with the “movement toward oligarchy” which he conflates with unfettered capitalism.
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Sanders stated that he faces attacks “from those who attempt to use the word socialism as a slur.” But it is not “red-baiting” to recognize that socialism means a particular form of economic organization and that those authoritarian countries [Cuba, North Korea, and Venezuela] come closest to using that form of organization.
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So does Sanders want real socialism? The closest he got to specifics was to argue that his democratic socialism would entail an “economic bill of rights,” which would include the right to a decent job that pays a living wage, quality health care, a complete education, affordable housing, a clean environment, and a secure retirement.
But listing aspirations tells us nothing about how he would achieve them. Based on his voting record and advocacy, his program would likely involve massive new interventions that would curtail our economic freedoms and place greater reliance on government planners.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
the right to a decent job that pays a living wage, quality health care, a complete education, affordable housing, a clean environment, and a secure retirement.
But as this article says:
[L]isting aspirations tells us nothing about how he would achieve them. Based on his voting record and advocacy, his program would likely involve massive new interventions that would curtail our economic freedoms and place greater reliance on government planners.
Sanders is a con-man. He is selling vague, nice-sounded ideals and promising that his "elixer" can deliver them.
His argument, his entire platform, is not based on logic and rational thought. It is based on "pie in the sky" thinking and hopes as being something that he, Bernie, can deliver (a "miracle tonic that heals all that ails you") out of the back of his his festooned horse and wagon "factory" if you, the American voter, just give him your support.
The dangerous thing though is that while he is selling a "con," a "pig-in-a-poke," he has dragged the entire Democratic Party over their with him. Bernie has the entire Party, each member of the slate of Democratic candidates, now selling his/her brand of magic "elixers."
Socialism is the concept that government can force people to work on behalf of some vague collective, without allowing them to enjoy any personal benefit from their labor. Socialist politicians get people into this position by promising them that they will have everything “free.” Then they use force, torture, and murder to keep them there.
Examples of how socialism fails abound, yet useful idiots continue to fall for it.
I love the undocumented immigrant term. It’s ILLEGAL ALIEN!
Sanders and all those on the wobbly left are peddling sentimentalism. It’s the religion of popular culture.
I am living this.
Just spoke to accountant this week.
Kicking back and not working much of the second half of this year so I don’t support the leftist collective that our state and country has turned into.
My phone rings off the hook and I was going to sign new contracts, but I told them I would get back to them in January.
Note: no USA flags on the stage.
We have these rights right now. All we have to do is get off our duffs and work for them. Sanders is such a huckster. I guess what he means is we all need the "right" to have these things handed to us?
Here's the problem with that argument.
Picking a candidate in a Presidential election is more like buying a car than choosing among medical procedures. Choosing a candidate is NOT a rational choice for many Americans, particularly not for the young.
It is an emotional decision.
Think of a visit to an automobile showroom as a teenager. Think about the power that red convertible had in contrast to the dull neutral-colored family sedan parked next to it. It's about dreams, ambitions, aspirations, ROMANCE...versus, say, deciding to tackle a chore like mowing the lawn or scrubbing the kitchen floor.
Romance versus chores...the freedom to fly away to excitement versus a return to that prison where your mom and dad (and, later, supervisors and bosses) are the wardens.
As a related aside, it speak volumes about Hillary that Bernie was a shiny red convertible by comparison.
No wonder Bill had a wandering eye...er, weenie.;-)
Sanders is advocating an America where you live with no responsibility, no effort required and no moral shackles. Free everything is freedom from everything. But rather than liberty, the freedom is actually a prison
Ugh. The Left is too full of these people and, unfortunately, you are correct. And they want to lower the voting age to 16 to gather all that starry-eyed emotion to themselves. Pie in the sky and bread and circuses.
now it’s just ‘migrant’ and ‘refugees’
And the media keeps it mum a true member of that mob.
Bingo! Well stated!
Communism: because 100 million (prematurely dead) people can’t be wrong...
What a beautiful, poetic, and TOTALLY wrong view of economics, and human nature in general. That single naive phrase has resulted in the misery and deaths of more people than any other single cause (except genocidal governments, most of which are Socialist / Communist).
To the Democrats--the Party of Hate and Evil--it was an instruction manual.
We’ve gotten *WAY* past the “by what authority”, quite quickly I might add, and have gone straight to the raping of the Treasury for the last pennies.
I haven’t even HEARD the word ‘constitution’ in ages (unless is was in the context of promoting anything govt...never AGAINST).
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