Bernie Sanders describes himself as a Socialist. He also says he’s not a Democrat, but he’s running for president on the Democratic ticket. The problem with Socialists is they don’t live in the real world. In their world, with pink elephants and orange skies, the government and business are the enemy.
Yet, nearly every Socialist government on the planet, that isn’t an economic basket case, has embraced capitalism and business to progress, the very things Sanders has been railing against.
Socialists believe, naively, that the working poor and non-working poor are natural allies. In theory that could be true. But try telling that to trump's dirt-poor white supporters and how they have more in common with Blacks than millionaires and billionaires. Socialist doctrine, founded on an English model, failed to property weigh the impact and the role of racism in their imaginary class struggle.
Sander’s appeal to younger Americans is somewhat understandable, because they do not have a grasp of history nor do they seem to care about much that happened before they were born.
Sanders, In a recent interview with the New York Daily News, came across as someone long on rhetoric but short on ways to turn his rhetoric into reality. For example, Sanders has touted a need to break up banks. The Daily News asked him how he would accomplish that as president.
Sanders replied, “How you go about doing it is having legislation passed, or giving the authority to the secretary of treasury to determine, under Dodd-Frank, that these banks are a danger to the economy over the problem of too-big-to-fail.”
He is delusional if he thinks a US Senate and House of Representatives, now mostly Republican led, will pass legislation that will break up banks. Even if the impossible became possible, Sanders revealed in the interview that he is clueless about the consequences of such a breakup and its impact on the economy.
Banks employ hundreds of thousands of workers. What effect will their lost jobs have on the economy? Sanders never considered those consequences.
Sanders talks about free tuition. It’s a nice idea, but he doesn’t address how it will be paid for nor how it intends to accomplish it. He’s telling people what they want to hear. Like Trump and Cruz in the Republican Party, Sanders is moving the Democrats farther to the left. With extremes on the left and extremes on the right, this country is bound to face stalemate after stalemate.
Bernie Sanders is probably a decent man, and most Democrats probably agree with much of what he’s saying to some degree. But Hillary is more electable and is the best person to defeat Trump or Cruz.
Hillary also is progressive. Sanders supporters may not get everything they want by voting for Hillary, but they could get much of it, and they could virtually guarantee neither Trump nor Cruz was elected. This election is crucial, and it demands shrewd political actions.