Here’s the Thing So Many Americans Can’t Grasp About Bernie Sanders

Observer ^ | 04/25/16 | Pete Ross

[mrbinga]

Watching this year’s presidential nomination process from Australia has been a very interesting affair. I can’t say I’ve followed every single speech or piece of news, but I’ve certainly kept abreast of what is going on and have seen plenty of articles and commentary from people on my feed putting their opinions forward. What interests me the most are the people and media pundits who emphatically denounce Bernie Sanders and his supporters. The reasons all generally boil down to the fact that he is the reincarnation of Karl Marx and he wants to turn the U.S. into a communist state. That he is so far left of centre that he’s basically off the chart.

For those people, here’s a reality check.

[mrbinga]

And here I thought Aussies were by and large a bunch of rugged pull yourself up by your bootstrap individualists.

[Argus]

That’s what I thought about Americans, too.

[Objective Scrutator]

To be fair, I wouldn’t disparage Australia based on this article alone. After all, the Marxists cult encourages its followers to take up journalism in all nations, so all media has an inherent Leftist bias.

Australia has traditionally had the smartest immigration policy in the world, but as a whole they reacted like massive pussies to the Port Arthur massacre when they managed to almost entirely ban guns.

[knarf]

yer off yer frikkin' rocker, Petey boy

"Around the rest of the world, Mr. Sanders represents a point on the political spectrum that is mildly left of centre. His “wacky” ideas of free (and we’ll get to that term a bit later) education, free healthcare, regulating banks and corporations and so on are all actually staple ideas of many of the happiest and most prosperous countries in the world. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the happiest countries in the world index for 2016. The U.S. doesn’t make the top 10—but almost every single country that does has the kind of policies Mr. Sanders is promoting at some level. Looking at the other candidates, Hillary Clinton would in most countries be considered right of centre, not left. Donald and Ted? Man, those guys are so far right of centre you couldn’t plot where they exist—they’re pretty much off the spectrum."

Not a single validation to that stupid statement that he bases an entire doctrine upon.

OY !

[liberalh8ter]

The author's first mistake is basing the entire theory on an index of the happiest Countries. The index to which he referred is commissioned by the U.N. Nuff said.

[Still Thinking]

His conclusion doesn’t follow from his “evidence”. If there are so many commie hellholes around the world where people are so happy, then Americans who want that obviously already have somewhere they can go. If the US is indeed the only holdout for personal freedom, wouldn’t it make more sense to leave it that way, so that people who are made happy by THAT have a place to get it?

[NewHampshireDuo]

That’s what I used to think about Canadians too.

[Rurudyne]

So the basic argument is that among the old radical left now styling itself as a new center he’s not so radical?

Gee, sounds like arguing the flip side of the slippery slope ... and pretending that we should only measure society by what it is presently doing rather than by some actual STANDARD that doesn’t change.

The world, as the article cast it, is WRONG. Socialism didn’t stop being diseased ideology simply because it became more common.

[PGR88]

So many leftist cliches and nostrums here, where to start?

Bernie is mildly left-of-center around the world. Wonderful - most of the world is poor, corrupt and violent. I see little benefits in following Belgium, Turkey or Argentina on their path

Sure, it costs money, but we get “so many good things.” Nonsense. Free Gov’t health care is awful.

Privatized US health-care will bankrupt the individual. We do NOT have privatized health care in the USA - not even close. Gov’t spends >50%, and has created a hairball of a system that basically benefits paid-for political cronies.

[Still Thinking]

Exactly! If you read the methodology behind most of these surveys of best places to live, it should actually be “best places for a liberal to live”. In fact, in a lot of cases, they don’t measure happiness, but instead obedience to liberal policy dogma, and just ASSUME that will make people happy. Which is stupid (and incorrect), but this guy takes the stupid a step farther if the studies he’s basing his statement on are like that. He’d essentially be saying “These studies found people are happiest in these countries, because they’re run by commie tyrants. Therefore, you should elect commie tyrants, because then you’ll be happy too!” His “reasoning” would be circular in the extreme.

[Don Corleone]

The U.S. doesn’t make the top 10—but almost every single country that does has the kind of policies Mr. Sanders is promoting at some level

And to a country they all depend on the generosity, blood, sweat and sacrifice of the USA for their military, scientific and political protection. REF: WWI, WWII, Cold War, Middle East...etc...etc...etc...

[Richard Axtell]

The “reality check” should begin in Venezuela, were the economy is collapsing, and hyperinflation and poverty will be the new normal.

\Then, its just a quick homemade raft trip to the paradise of Castro’s Cuba, touted as having the finest health care system in the western hemisphere... by those who know nothing about it. It is so superior to that which we have in the U.S, that thousands are fleeing Cuba to get away from all the health that permeates that joyous island.

A first class Democrat Party Billionaire paid for plane trip to wonderful Scandinavia is next, where socialists are losing power and being thrown out by the dozens because of an idiotic welfare state that has paid the unemployed up to 80% of their former wages, and where rape by gangs unfortunate oppressed Islamic refugees is what girls and women have to contend with on a daily basis.

Bernie sure has his act together, and why we might question his progressive and mild/moderate leftist leanings is certainly beyond me.

[Billthedrill]

The most common one I see is “how is he going to pay for all of this?” This question misses the point entirely. Even if economists say that he can’t, does that really invalidate everything he’s aiming to achieve?

I want to give every American citizen a flying unicorn. Even if I can't achieve that, does that invalidate the aim?

Uh...yes, actually, it does. Next question.

[Sans-Culotte]

Even if this guy was correct that there are some happy socialist countries, they won’t be happy for long. One reason socialism can ostensibly work in say, Sweden is that they are not over-run with third-worlders and layabouts the way the USA is. If the entire country more or less pays into the system, they could offer “free stuff”. Once those countries get overwhelmed with the muslim “refugees” who will suck up all the “free services” they’ll turn into Greece.

[petro45acp]

Not to mention that America is NOT the rest of the world. This country was an experiment in self government. The individual as the primary unit of measure, and protecting the individual’s right to succeed or fail on the basis of the individual’s own decisions, the governments primary goal. It is not surprising that everywhere the American experiment is failing could be traced directly to doing it “like the rest of the world.”

Healthcare-not the government’s job
Education-not the government’s job
Retirement-not the government’s job
Law enforcement-not the government’s job
Control of the economy/banking-not the government’s job
Listening to surveys of “happiest” countries-not the government’s job (although that freedom index thing couldn’t hurt)
Protecting the borders and sovereignty-the government’s job
Protecting and defending the constitution of the United States-THE government’s job

In short, this country was not ever intended to be about a political spectrum. It was to be more about opportunity to succeed or fail on the basis of one’s own decisions.

Your mileage may vary....

KYPD

[ChildOfThe60s]

Eliminate third-party payers in the medical industry and watch costs across-the-board plummet. That includes getting the government out.

Costs would drop so much that, in most cases, people would pay less for the actual medical care than they now pay for insurance.

[mrbinga]

Touché

[Rashputin]

Since all the Muzzie gang rapes have begun in Europe I seriously doubt that UN study reflects reality now if it ever did.

All those happy countries are going to run into a brick wall in a hurry once Trump stops subsidizing their defense. No way they'll all lie down and play nice because every one of them is paranoid about at least one other member of NATO and if they have to pay their own way, they'll tailor their forces to something other than the grand NATO vision of things.

JMHo

[caddie]

Around the rest of the world, Mr. Sanders represents a point on the political spectrum that is mildly left of centre.

Disgraceful but true. All the old Commonwealth nations are just Commie-lite now. Love to have the government take care of them. Shame that so much of their ancestors' blood was spilled to bequeath freedom to these people, who promptly gave it away after WW2.

Our role as Americans is different. IF we go communist heaven forbid, the whole world plunges into darkness for a thousand years or more. We have to behave differently.

And what are the differences among Communism, Socialism and Liberalism? O'Rourke said it best: "Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink."

Socialism I guess is just a double of Communism.

[Kickass Conservative]

Watched Bernie’s Indiana Victory Speech last night. In addition to his boilerplate Marxism, he went after Trump.

He called Trump a Birther and suggested it was because Obama is African American.

In other words, Trump the Bigot hates Black People.

I wonder, does he know that the entire Birther Movement started with Hillary’s Campaign in 2008? They also started the Obama is a Muslim meme.