Bernie Sanders, the old, angry and bitter man calling for a revolution among the working class, in a pale imitation of one of his heroes, Lenin, a young, angry bitter man, bills himself as a Democratic-Socialist. As I’ve mentioned before, all that matters with these hyphenated names is the word to the right of the hyphen.
Bernie should be running as a Socialist. Those folk have never done particularly well in our presidential elections. The highest percentage of the vote ever was back in 1912 when Eugene V. Debs received around 6% of the vote. So Bernie dresses himself in Democratic clothing and participates in the election under that disguise.
In 2016 he ran for president in the same clothes in the Democratic primary. He happened to be the only opponent of Hillary Clinton who had worked it so that she would get the nomination no matter who opposed her. Because Hillary had such high negative numbers and was related to a former president often called Slick Willie, Bernie attracted voters who otherwise were repelled by Hillary. He also attracted a large group of younger Democratic voters with his promise of free things.
Hillary was a moderate Democrat who had no intention of trying to imitate Bernie’s give-aways. She lost to Trump. The message taken by the Democrats as a result of that was that perhaps had she been more Bernie-like she may have won. It was not long after the defeat that the Democratic Party reorganized and appointed a new chairman. One of his first acts was to go on a nationwide tour with Bernie cementing the idea that Bernie was to be the face of the party even though he was not a Democrat.
Bernie would continued to offer free stuff. Free as used by Bernie and others in the Democratic Party doesn’t really mean free; it means taxpayer-funded. As the idea of free caught on others jumped on board. The leader became Elizabeth Warren who was intent on offering free stuff in as many areas as she could think of doing. No matter how much she offered another candidate would call her and raise the amount of free stuff he or she would give.
Which brings me to the Democratic Party debates that I watched last night and the night before. At one point I sat there wondering after listening to Williamson and Yang whether one of the plans being put forth was to give a thousand dollars to every adult in New Zealand. It was confusing to say the least but you have to admit Yang’s plan to give every adult in the country a thousand dollars a month forever is the best free plan out there.
Of course that is ridiculous but what is as ridiculous is that almost all of the Democratic Candidates have swallowed the Bernie pill and are all offering Bernie-type solutions. As best I can tell the Democratic candidate that is eventually nominated will be asking the American people to swing far left into the land of everlasting socialism. That candidate, that won’t be either of the two old men, Joe or Bernie, who showed their oldness during the debate, has already embraced a program that will alienate moderates and independents throughout the country.
Independents and moderates are not seeing the country that the Democrats see. They are not ready to embrace abortion on demand up through the third trimester. Nor are they anxious to pay more taxes, as the Democrats insist will happen with their programs to pay for strangers who may wander over the borders of our country.
No Democratic candidate objected to a program of universal health care for all, either immediately run totally by the government or delayed a bit as private insurance plans are eliminated. Every Democratic candidate would make this free health care available for undocumented immigrants. No Democratic candidate would deport from this country any person who arrived here in violation of our laws who had not committed a serious crime after arriving. All candidates plan to make college free at least at community college levels and would lessen the burden of loans. They are all disciples of Bernie.
The Democratic nominee for president will be asking Americans to vote to increase taxes on themselves so that people from other countries can come here against our laws and remain here without fear of being sent away and immediately benefit from free health care and education. We see the attraction of America to those poor folk from other countries who risk all to come here without these new benefits being available. How much more will the influx grow when these offerings are put into place?
I suggest the guys and gals who get up every morning and truck off to their forty hour work weeks, not including commuting time, the people who the Democrats are supposed to be seeking to bring back into the fold, are going to find this distasteful. The road to Trump’s reelection has been paved by Bernie.
Whose calling who the cranky old man?
I like Joe Biden, comparatively anyway, and I originally thought he had “won” the “debate.” Of course, my view is a bad predictor of Democrat primary voters. Joan Vennocchi, whom I don’t like, cruelly but accurately said Biden wrote his own epitaph when he said, “I’m sorry. My time is up.” His opponent should run that clip in their ads.
Agreed.
Great points, Matt and Henry.
After watching both debates, the promises of free health care for all, free education, no deportations (except major felons), it is a certainty if the DEMS get elected the flood of refugees and immigrants will surge to a tidal wave. Who won’t flock here?
Every year since 1999 (last 20 years) between 300 and 450 people died attempting to cross the border (Under Obama-Biden the numbers hovered closer to 350-400-plus range). CHECK STATS. How many more deaths when the Tidal Wave occurs?
Now, what the DEMs propose is INCENTIVES to increase illegal immigration, and to not call it illegal anymore, but to make it a civil “offense” punishable by no deportation, but “rewardable” with free health care, immediate enrollment in social security, free education, a “human right” to a job with a living wage, etcetera. INSANITY.
JUST THINK HOW THE AVERAGE JOE’S TAXES ARE GOING TO SURGE . ..the average Joe who spent a lifetime paying off college loans for himself and his kids, or paying off the mortgage, or paying for medical care, health care, the gym, insurance . . .SCREW HIM, the average JOE, because now immigrants (illegal or not) and millennials get everything free. And the DEMs promise the average Joe everything for free, too. All we gotta do is tax the creative, successful, industrious, innovative folks who are rich . . .two thirds of millionaires and billionaires in America were born poor or middle class, but screw them. PUNISH THE SUCCESSFUL, those who gave us the Internet and Amazon et al, with more taxes. Take from the Successful and give to the Bureaucrats. Who knows better how to manage money . . .a FED? a lifelong Bureaucrat? Or the guy who made it the hard way, in the real world?
2. I believe Bill Clinton sincerely wanted to make abortion “rare”; even Harry Blackmun who wrote Roe v. Wade thought abortion would be used rarely after the first few months only where the LIFE AND HEALTH of the mother were at risk. (He defined health too broadly to include familial or economic well being). We all know when and how an individual human life begins. TODAY’S DEMOCRATS HAVE ZERO QUALMS ABOUT KILLING THE UNBORN at any stage of pregnancy, up to and including birth. The right to kill the unborn is unfettered, in their world view. Albert Schweitzer would be appalled that those who fervently strive to protect the Canadian Goose and Snail Darter fish have no qualms about killing human beings.
2. Hospitals: Want to know how good it is when Government runs things? Compare the Veterans Hospitals with those evil private Harvard Medical Teaching Hospitals in Boston. And how many breakthroughs in medicine come from private labs versus government run labs? Sure, DEMS let the government run health care!
3. Sure, let Bureaucrats tell Doctors how to practice medicine. Let government manage Health Care and Health Insurance and we’ll all suffer. Read the head of B.U.’s School of Public Health new book: WELL: the difference between health care and health. ONE DEBATER correctly noted we have SICKNESS INSURANCE, not health insurance, and we should be encouraging preventive medicine: daily exercise, yoga, prayer (church goers statistically are happier and healthier, on average), meditation, good nutrition, diet, clean environment) and we should avoid the alarmist and extremists in the DEMOCRATIC PARTY and the warmongers in the REPUBLICAN PARTY.
4. SOMEONE SAID: That government governs best, that governs least. FREE THE PEOPLE. GET GOVERNMENT OUT OF OUR LIVES, except needed public health, public safety, aid the poor. Unleash the private sector, the power of the people. LOWER TAXES. MAKE LOVE NOT WAR. GET MARRIED, HAVE CHILDREN, RAISE A FAMILY, GO TO CHURCH or not, be happy, feel free, but STOP THE KILLING. Stop killing human beings in the womb and stop insulting reason with leftist-socialistic-pipe dreams.
You seem like a lot of fun at cocktail parties.
Identity politics,abortion on demand,Medicare for all,open borders,the Green new deal.
What has happened to the Democratic Party? How could any rational voter be in favor of
such a platform? Remember an old slogan from a previous Democrat, “It’s the economy
Stupid”. As mild as that sounds by today’s standards,it’s still universally true.Looks like
the middle class and the middle of America will once again be lost in the mix by these
Candidates who are the true deplorables.
Agreed.
Excellent post. Thought the same thing about Bernie and Jo. Showed their age. When Sen. Harris Mau Maued Jo about busing his defense was incoherent He. looked weak and unimpressive. 2. The Demmies aren’t going to beat Trump on the economy if it stays strong. The only candidate that could win is Tulsi Gabbard. She is a veteran who deployed to Iraq. She looks good, can stop traffic and is in her forties. A different generation. Were Trump to blunder into a war with Iran, which few Americans support, there would be an opening for her. The two main issues nationally are usually Peace and Prosperity. If Trump lost the Peace issue he could be defeated. Otherwise four more years.
Agreed.
Consider the mild socialism of Ireland’ health care system, Not Venezuela, not yet.
“The number of people on waiting lists for various medical procedures has reached almost one million, according to Fianna Fáil, which has labelled the situation a “national scandal”.
“It said those listed by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF), the organisation that monitors waiting times and volumes in public hospitals, had reached 717,419 by June.
“The scale of these waiting lists is truly shocking, and highlights very clearly the level of demand and the lack of capacity available to meet it. The latest available figures reveal that over 148,000 outpatients had been waiting over one year to see a consultant,” Mr Calleary said.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/almost-a-million-waiting-for-medical-procedures-1.3589171
Agreed.