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Religion is the hand that rocks the cradle of this sort of thing. American religion has a deep seated bias towards economic conservativism as a consequence of its magical, anti-scientific worldview.
I would tend to agree. I grew up in fundamentalist Christianity, and the promised “pie in the sky when you die” definitely keeps people from wanting a better “here and now.” Church leadership is especially invested in economic misery, because more misery equals more people in the pews.
I think that by now it's been going on for something like a hundred years. And it still works on some people, although Bernie has diminished the fear a bit.
Republicans have a long, disreputable history of conflating any attempt to improve American lives with the evils of "socialism." When Medicare was first proposed, Ronald Reagan called it "socialized medicine," and he declared that it would destroy our freedom. These days, if you call for something like universal child care, conservatives accuse you of wanting to turn America into the Soviet Union. It's a smarmy, dishonest political strategy, but it's hard to deny that it has sometimes been effective.
Strange how the Democrat use scare tactics and fear mongering by using words such Nazi and Hitler and a few other negative labels they use on conservatives.
As I thought I made clear, the "tagging" began long before Sanders.
And, by the way, socialist leaning countries like Denmark and Finland aren't starving or miserable, as far as I know. In fact, I think Finland was considered that happiest of all countries.
Denmark and Finland are not socialist, or even 'socialist leaning.' In fact the Danish PM complained in a 2015 speech at Harvard about claims of Denmark as 'socialist' (undoubtedly referring to Bernie at the time). https://fee.org/articles/the-myth-of...ian-socialism/
Quote:
Originally Posted by Danish PM
I know that some people in the US associate the Nordic model with some sort of socialism. Therefore I would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy.
The usual term for Denmark and Finland would be 'social democracy,' rather than 'socialist.' In some respects the Scandi countries are less socialist than the US.
Socialism is 'government ownership of the means of production.' They don't have that in Finland and Denmark.
He advocates social democratic, FDR-style policies like stronger labor unions, a national health care system and higher SS benefits. The vast majority of conservative parties in the rest of the developed world support Sanders' policies. He calls it democratic socialism. Its a very far cry from actual socialism where workers own the means of production.
Per a report from the Washington Post’s Jeff Stein, Sanders is preparing a plan that would mandate corporations “regularly contribute a portion of their stocks to a fund controlled by employees, which would pay out a regular dividend to the workers.”
That is socialism, not Scandi-style social democracy. BTW, Sweden had a similar program of diverting corporate profits to unions in the early 1990s. They dumped it.
Bernie likes to fuzz the difference between socialism and social democracy. Either he's too dumb to know the difference, or he's being a little disingenuous. My bet is on the latter.
I think that by now it's been going on for something like a hundred years. And it still works on some people, although Bernie has diminished the fear a bit.
Republicans have a long, disreputable history of conflating any attempt to improve American lives with the evils of "socialism." When Medicare was first proposed, Ronald Reagan called it "socialized medicine," and he declared that it would destroy our freedom. These days, if you call for something like universal child care, conservatives accuse you of wanting to turn America into the Soviet Union. It's a smarmy, dishonest political strategy, but it's hard to deny that it has sometimes been effective.
For Christ’s sake Bernie admits he’s a socialist and spent time chumming up with the Russians. All their policies are socialist policies. Do you know what socialism is?
That is socialism, not Scandi-style social democracy. BTW, Sweden had a similar program of diverting corporate profits to unions in the early 1990s. They dumped it.
Bernie likes to fuzz the difference between socialism and social democracy. Either he's too dumb to know the difference, or he's being a little disingenuous. My bet is on the latter.
I'm only replying since your reputation comment said it is wrong. What I was commenting is that a lot of people on the right just throw out the canned line of "Gah socialism." And honestly Bernie does have some socialistic tendencies, do not get me wrong, but they often go off the rails with it.
FYI, you do realize that Sweden is Scandinavian right?
For Christ’s sake Bernie admits he’s a socialist and spent time chumming up with the Russians. All their policies are socialist policies. Do you know what socialism is?
Just like Trump has. Oh wait, I can't say that... Just look at the news of who Trump dumped and why he dumped him today. When will Republicans learn that Trump is the mirror image of everything they want to get rid of.
If Bernie is the nominee I would vote for him. I would not vote for Hillary, but ANYONE not named Trump or Hillary.
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