Bernie Sanders & The Rise of Socialism (or is it Democratic Socialism)
I have been slightly sidetracked for awhile with work, life, and a myriad of other things taking my time away from writing. Then this morning I was actually able to peruse some of the posts here on Medium.
In case you didn’t already know, we have a rather large contingent of Bernie fans who are also unabashed socialists — which is good since there is a clear connection between the two.
The question is why? Why are you supporting something that I was told here by an unabashed socialist has never existed.
Notice that I am not saying socialism has never existed — he did. When I challenged him on it — by calling it a fairy tale — I got no response which I did not find surprising at all. So Bernie fans, if it is not socialism — then what is it?
Let’s see if Bernie can answer that one for you. From the CNN Democratic Debate —
It is “democratic socialism.” Maybe we are getting somewhere?
Anderson Cooper gave him the perfect set-up to explain what “democratic socialism” is and Sanders pledged to explain it in his answer. Yet, despite his claim to explain it — he did no such thing. We did not get an understanding of what democratic socialism is — all we got was a whole lot of “free stuff” being promised by him if he was elected President.
Does Bernie Sanders, an self-avowed Democratic Socialist, even know what it is? One has to wonder. If you finished watching the entire clip, then you would see that even Sanders cannot explain it. He found it easier to blame others (i.e. “the rich”) for their corruption of American society and how that must change.
How hard could it be to explain what Democratic Socialism is?
Well, this millennial could not explain anything other than the capability to curse and say Fox News. So we will not learn anything from him.
Well, not from any of these, but you can tell that they are Sanders’ supporters with all of their signs.
Let’s see if millennials — who were not seen on any camera — understand it. According to a recent poll —
“…millennials’ support for redistribution and social welfare spending decline as they age, make more money (pay more in taxes), and take on more responsibilities.”
Gee, are you sure? Millennials who actually work for a living actually do NOT want more of their money taken from them to support people who do not work — or more precisely choose not to work because they expect the government to take care of them.
In order for socialism to work, there must be people who actually work to provide all of those services for those people who do not work. That is not politics — that is what we call basic mathematics. Even Sanders said he was going to raise taxes on EVERYONE.
He tries to deflect it by saying we will save money in the long run on things like healthcare. But the costs of government run healthcare continues to climb in all of the countries he named in his response. (AARP did a study of healthcare costs in those countries specifically.) So, to sustain it, we would have to raise taxes and raise taxes. Talk about a Catch-22.
That also begs the question — Do people even know what socialism really is? Much less be able to explain how it works? Probably not. But here is another piece of information to think about. When asked to pick the better system between capitalism and socialism —
As Margaret Thatcher said —
“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
Once they get their own money that they work for, even millennials realize that socialism is NOT for them.
