Why Bernie Sanders Will Win -- Part 1: Economics

Doc Brown has been to the future--and he knows who will be our next president!

 Why Bernie Sanders Will Win – Part 1: Economics

by Joe Brunoli

a.k.a. EuroYankee

The establishment political set and the mainstream media seem to be wholly fixated on writing off Bernie Sanders as an “extreme left” politician from a “small, mostly white state” and a “self-proclaimed socialist.” And because of these attributes, he has no chance of winning in the general election – this presumably because America is a “centrist-right” or even a “conservative” country.

They are overlooking some very basic facts of history and socio-economics, as well as politics. It is true that over the past 35 years, “liberal” has been become an epithet, while “conservative” has become an emblem that more and more Americans feel comfortable with. But why is that?

It Started with Reagan

Ronald Reagan embodied a strident, “conservative” persona, rejecting Jimmy Carter’s namby-pamby “liberal” identity. The so-called “Reagan Democrats” were drawn to Reagan because he was willing to tell then that they did not have to lower their thermostats, drive smaller cars, or switch to the metric system. America was a “shining city on a hill” whose best days lay ahead. America was perceived as weak in the world, and he, Ronald Reagan, would beef up the military and make America strong again.  He played on racial tensions, revving up the “Southern Strategy” that had worked for other Republican candidates since Nixon. And of, course, Reagan was the first one to propose a Constitutional amendment to ban abortion.

“God, Guns and Gays”

Since 1980, the idea of what makes a “conservative” has been framed in mostly non-economic terms.  Creationism, Christianity, Abortion, Gay Rights, Gun Control, Affirmative Action – these are the key issues that defined an American as a Conservative. It was never so much about tax cuts and small government, as far as the average voter was concerned. Sure, every conservative would automatically stand for cutting taxes, but that was an auxiliary, second tier issue that did not engender the type of fervor among the electorate.

For thirty years, Republicans won elections by putting gay marriage, abortion rights and other cultural “wedge issues” on the ballot.  And they are still using that playbook. 

The Democrats, for their part, have also happily played into this game. The Democratic Leadership Council, headed by Bill Clinton, co-opted conservative economic principles and left the Democratic Party only a slim playing field on which to oppose Republicans on cultural issues. “Liberal” billionaire donors like George Soros, Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer give to Democrats to support cultural, social or environmental issues – not economic ones. These are smart men. After all, they know enough not to go against their own economic interests.

But for just how long can the American voter be asked to vote against his or her own economic interests in order to promote their positions on cultural issues?

Bernie Not Afraid to Speak about the Economy

In Bernie’s speech announcing his candidacy, he spent fully 45% of his time speaking about economic issues – more than twice as much as any of the other candidates, and almost three times as much time as Hillary Clinton did. Some Republican candidates didn't even mention economics in their announcement speeches.

Resentment at growing wealth inequality, the disappearance of the middle class, the harsh reality that most people are moving backwards economically compared to their parents – these are all issues that have been percolating, seething below the surface of the superficial political debate in America. But they are important issues, and when people say that Bernie is “touching a nerve” they vastly underestimate the power of his message.

As an Independent who refuses to take PAC money or billionaires’ donations, Bernie now occupies a unique position in American political history. I believe history will show that his is the winning ticket.

Bio: Joe Brunoli, a.k.a. The EuroYankee, is a US ex-pat with dual US-EU citizenship. Originally from Connecticut, Joe currently splits his time between his ancestral residence on Lake Como, Italy, and his apartment in Barcelona, Spain. He travels Europe extensively for his work and tries to find time to comment on trends, attitudes, politics and points of interest - especially as they may affect or regard the US. 

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An Honest Socialist

Does this mean Bernie can count on your vote, Gov. Jindal?

An Honest Socialist

by A. J. Matthews

Why shouldn't a person be honest about holding socialist views? Why is being termed a "democratic socialist" seen as a negative thing by politicians like Bobby Jindal? Mostly the word "socialism" suffers because of 70 year old rhetoric still being bandied about today.

Socialism got a bad name during the dark days of the Cold War when it was mistakenly equated with Soviet-style Communism. However, there are significant differences:

1. Socialism is an economic system while communism is both an economic and political system.

2. In socialism, the resources of the economy are managed and controlled by the people themselves through communes or councils while in communism, management and control rest on a few people in a single authoritarian party.

3. Socialists distribute wealth to the people based on an individual’s productive efforts while communists farm out wealth based on an individual’s needs.

4. Socialists can own personal properties while communists can not.

5. Socialism allows capitalism to exist in its midst while communism seeks to get rid of capitalism.

Source: http://www.differencebetween.net/ Read more.

 

These differences were enough to allow the United States from the end of World War II onward to cooperate fully with socialist governments around the world with few qualms since it meant having allies against the Soviet Union. Today, the four Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland can boast of the highest standards of living in the world, and they've had democratic socialist governments for the past seventy years.

Democratic socialists? Who are they?
  

Democratic socialism is a political ideology advocating a democratic political system alongside a socialist economic system, involving a combination of political democracy with social ownership of the means of production. 

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_socialism

The Cold War is over, and yet there are those who'll use the same rhetoric, inspire that same old fear of "The Reds" to cow the American people into voting against their best interests. As always, follow the money. Certain people face serious problems in making vast sums of money if the American government followed democratic socialist principles. These people are the oligarchs, also known as "the 1%." These people tell us socialism is bad.

Let's face it--the odds that any of us reading this blog will become rich enough to be in that 1% are slim to none. We could work hard our whole lives, save every penny we can, and still we'll have less money at the end of our days than one of these oligarchs obtains in one month.

Think on that. While the corporate bosses, multi-millionaires and billionaires to a man (and yes, they are mostly men) quibble over paying employees a living wage of $15 an hour, most of them have an income that calculates to fifteen bucks or more per second. Most of the 1% place their profits into tax havens such as offshore accounts in the trillions of dollars. It was estimated in 2012 that these oligarchs have funneled at least $32 trillion in financial assets out of the country. 

$32 trillion? Exactly how big is that? Take the digits 3 and 2 and stick twelve zeros behind them: $32,000,000, 000, 000. That's enough to give every man, woman and child currently living in the United States $96,969 each.

Is the hoarding of $32 trillion fair and equitable? No, of course not! It's obscene. Socialism offers a way to place a firm cap on the naked greed of the 1%. It's an honest form of government. To give an example from Bernie Sanders' policies, taxing Wall Street at a tiny .1% per transaction will generate enough money to give everyone who wants to attend college four years free public university tuition, which is in line with many European countries. 

And you read that right--the tax is really that small: just one-tenth of one percent. Consider the kind of wealth Wall Street generates to be able to raise that much money from such a miniscule tax. It's staggering.

There are some folks, usually people who dream of being in the 1% one day, who say, "Socialism means giving someone the shirt off another person's back." This statement is downright misleading and deceptive. The 1% don't care if you have a shirt or not. If you can't afford to buy a shirt from them, the 1% are not interested in you. They've got better things to do, like demanding that their paid-for politicians give them more tax cuts and more corporate welfare subsidies, the money for which comes out of the pockets of the working poor. 

"Shirts for the poor?" asks the 1%. "Who cares about shirts? Who cares about the poor?

There's a lot wrong with this country. Democratic socialism can and will fix it. If the term "Democratic Socialist" still bothers you, perhaps you can use the term "Progressive." Bernie Sanders terms his policies "progressive policies." If you do a little investigating, you'll see how the policies Sen. Sanders has proposed differ very little from those espoused by the Republican Party sixty years ago or those of the Democratic Party forty years ago.

Think about the many benefits we enjoy today, thanks to socialist-oriented policies such as the Interstate Highway System, instituted under Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Social Security and Medicare benefits for our senior citizens.

If any of this resonates with you, then you'll want to vote for Bernie Sanders!

Bio: A. J. Matthews is an author and artist who says to all his fellow Bernie supporters: #FeeltheBern