“When I talk about democratic socialism, if somebody wants to call me a radical, okay, here it is: I believe that people are inherently entitled to health care,” Sanders said. “I believe people are entitled to get the best education they can. I believe that people are entitled to live in a clean environment.”
Bernie Sanders
Bernie isn’t a “radical” by any standards. But he’s not going to do much good either, if elected. As is the case with his present Democratic opposition.
Let’s go through a few tidbits he offered up, for starters; I got them from a Robert Mackey piece posted today.
Plenty has been written about how Bernie is not a true socialist, and even more words have been laid out on alternative media outlets making it clear why his being the president wouldn’t amount to much change in the nation. I won’t repeat any of that here.
Here and now I’d like the reader to simply focus on the select few words of his he chose to deliver in announcing his candidacy… attempting to make his agenda into something that anyone with common sense would want to embrace.
People are entitled to health care? Yeah, but… a BIG BUT! He’s not at all supporting the kind of health care that’s needed, not by a long shot; I ask readers to run through what Russell Mokhiber says we’re really entitled to, a program which Bernie does not support
Education? He’s not calling a spade a spade when it comes to public or charter educational institutions. As a supporter of Empire — whole hog — he’s bogged down with ignoring our abominations abroad, except to — intermittently — submit some acceptable (politically correct) comments to mainstream media outlets. Yes, he does appear on outlets like Amy Goodman Democracy Now!, but no one presses him on his support of Empire whatsoever in any meaningful way
Environment? For us to have a clean environment worldwide, Bernie would have to be advocating a truly revolutionary new role for our military dynamics. He’d have to be underscoring the degree to which they’re considered by many as the single greatest non–nation polluter in the world. And he’d have to be attacking issues related to our runaway consumerism.
That’s enough to damn him in my eyes, but — again — good folks from Black Agenda Report, Consortium News and other trustworthy alternative sources have documented his relative uselessness respecting the radical changes which are now necessary.
He can plant seeds, yes, but we’re facing something that Bernie is not acknowledging. That is, “deadlines” which cannot be met at the pace he’s embraced with the Democratic Party.
And note that if he manages to run with Elizabeth Warren or most of the major others who are presently running against him in the upcoming primary, he’ll be taking a traditional capitalist on board as VP.
VP? Very pathetic… if anyone is interested in putting to bed our present and proliferating barbarism.
