Bernie Sanders Surge Reflects US Shift on SocialismBernie must be stopped by every political means possible. We don't need articles telling the masses that Americans are more open to socialism.
Despite his self-described socialist views, Sanders is experiencing an unexpected wave of popularity, and is drawing some of the largest, most electric crowds of any presidential candidate so far...
Does Sanders' newfound mainstream popularity suggest Americans are changing their views on socialism?
For many younger Americans, that appears to be the case, according to University of Massachusetts, Amherst economics professor Richard Wolff, who says the socialist label is not nearly as scary as it once was.
"For people 30 years of age and younger, saying, 'Bernie Sanders is a socialist' cuts exactly no ice," [[is not an effective smear tactic]] Wolff told VOA. "It's useless. It doesn't persuade anyone."
A Gallup poll conducted earlier this year lends weight to that view.
In the 18-29 age bracket, 69 percent of respondents said they would have no problem voting for a socialist presidential candidate.
-RW
The shift happened a long time ago. Politics is a lagging indicator. The truth is that even conservative republicans are effectively socialist, they just have different ideas on where the money should go. I say give the Bernie Sanders good and hard and let them choke on him. Or starve on him for that matter. Do you think people who stand by while children are incinerated, starved and denied medicine by us law really have serious moral qualms about robbing their neighbors? America is about reap what it has sown.
ReplyDeleteI forgot what Soviet leader said it (I think it was Khrushchev) but the quote that US wont accept socialism all at once but will accept it in little doses and by the time anyone realizes it their will be full blown socialism was spot on.
ReplyDeleteThen again we're screwed either way.
"We don't need articles telling the masses that Americans are more open to socialism."
ReplyDeleteUh, Americans have openly embraced variants of collectivism ("secondary" socialism in some respects, to paraphrase Anderson, and fascism in others) in greater and greater measures since the 1930s. These young people today are simply voting for the status quo. They don't know anything else. In the article by William L. Anderson posted on EPJ the other day, Anderson describes the economics of Bernie Sanders as such:
"If one reads Sanders’s platform from another perspective, it would be the New Deal. Indeed, there is nothing Sanders has written or said from the stump that would not be reminiscent of a New Deal rally (with the possible exception in appealing to black Americans, which was not part of the Democratic Party agenda in the 1930s, as well as Sanders’s appeal to furthering the Sexual Revolution). Bernie Sanders pushes an economic agenda that is frozen in time."
Why keep pretending that the US is not highly collectivist already? This reminds me of the great quote by Garret Garrett from his essay "The Revolution Was" from 1938:
"There are those who still think they are holding the pass against a revolution that may be coming up the road. But they are gazing in the wrong direction. The revolution is behind them. It went by in the night of Depression, singing songs to freedom."
The shift towards socialism comes from the government schools, not Sanders.
ReplyDelete"In the 18-29 age bracket, 69 percent of respondents said they would have no problem voting for a socialist presidential candidate."
ReplyDeleteSo people 18-29 in this country are completely stupid then? Be careful what you wish for you idiots. You just may get it.
If not completely, then mostly.
Delete"conservative republicans are effectively socialist, they just have different ideas on where the money should go"
ReplyDeleteCorrect. You have a paper clip difference in the ideas of Dick Cheney, Bush, Bush Jr, Clinton, Obama and Sanders.
Also, most, if not all socialists are pro war, pro militarism. A lot of the neocons were former marxists and commies in their student days. In the military, a great social leveling occurs. They all dress similarly, they have the same hair cuts, strict gun control on military bases, common dining etc. The military, and its projection of power is as commie as it gets.
We have squandered the past 40 years on anarchism, the mushy LP, and trying to make inroads in the Republican Party. We could have built a strong, classical liberal, Austrian-oriented Party by now, but no one thought of it.
ReplyDeleteMy kids go on iFunny all day long. It's predominantly libertarian. There are very few white and Asian kids who are genuinely progressive in the <18 age bracket. I think we're seeing the last spasms with Mr. Sanders.
ReplyDelete