A Sunday morning thought...
I will vote for Bernie Sanders when he is actually running for
president but the Democrats will never allow him to get the
nomination... that’s one reason so many Democrats each with their own
constituencies are running... as they drop out they will endorse who the
corporate Democrats have probably already chosen for us.
So, if Bernie Sanders really wants to run for president he will have to help start a new working class based people’s party.
But, I think it’s good people get involved in supporting Bernie Sanders
because it will be an educational experience in how the Democratic
Party is just another Wall Street party... the educational experience is
good for people, especially for those who are slow learners.
I believe Bernie Sanders has entered this race to keep people trapped in the Democratic Party.
We are headed for Trump getting a second term and this is why he needs
to be impeached and removed from office now; before he can do more harm.
Bernie Sanders isn’t very honest, either. He is pushing this scam of
Medicare for All without telling people that it will come with its own
huge monthly premium for most people... it will be publicly funded only
to the extent everyone’s premiums are placed in a pool controlled by the
government and paid out through a joint government-private
administrator and the delivery will remain free-market for-profit.
Of course, none of his supporters will ask him this specifically just
like they don’t ask him why he voted to fund a new generation of nuclear
weapons and modernizing a military committed to imperialist
interventions and wars.
I could go on and on and explain how his
stands on other reforms are less than worthy of our support although
they are packaged in a way they sound liberal, progressive and even
left.
But, then again, Bernie Sanders has never initiated any
kind of legitimate round-table discussions seeking input before bringing
his schemes forward, has he?
If he did, he would get an earful;
he would hear what he doesn’t want to hear... an honest discussion from
grassroots and rank-and-file working class activists.
For
instance; on health care he would hear about the need for a National
Public Health Care System- publicly funded with a huge peace dividend
together with a great big tax on corporate profits and a very small
payroll tax, about one-tenth of the present Social Security tax,
publicly administered without any corporations or banks profiting from
the administration of the health care program... and publicly delivered
by doctors, nurses and other health care professionals on the public
payroll just like public school teachers- a system based on the model of
public education but more progressively financed and with
administrators committed to the National Public Health Care System not
those constantly trying to undermine it. In fact, this is what any kind
of socialist would be advocating and it would gain the support of the
overwhelming majority of the people in this country and advocating such a
health Care System would rebuild the historic coalition of liberals,
progressives and leftists which would carry us forward to really solve
many other problems and get us off this capitalist road to our demise
and on the path to peace and socialism.
It is very telling that
Bernie Sanders is so dishonest he doesn’t provide the particulars of
funding for his so-called Medicare for All... and, besides, Bernie
Sanders has been part of the Democratic Party caucus in Congress that
has whittled away at Medicare with higher co-pays and allowing the
doctors to establish their own fees... something Bernie Sanders has
never so much as mentioned. Instead of improving on Medicare for All
over the years the Democrats have made it more expensive for working
people in their retirement years.
As far as Bernie Sanders and
his stance on the Minimum Wage... he refuses to support making the
Minimum Wage legislatively adjusted to the actual cost-of-living. This
is the only fair solution.
On jobs, he is just like the other
politicians... he talks about “jobs, jobs, jobs” but refuses to bring
forward legislation that would make the President and Congress
legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining real full
employment at real living wages... something Henry Wallace was
advocating way back in the 1940’s when he broke free from the Democratic
Party and ran for president as the candidate of the Progressive Party
which brought together liberals, progressives and leftists.
Bernie Sanders has no solution to the crisis robotics, automation and
now the merger of these with digitalization and artificial intelligence
is about to have... how will worker’s losing their jobs live, what will
be our quality of life and standard-of-living if we don’t nationalize
the major corporations and bring them under public ownership and
democratic control... which Bernie Sanders has adamantly stated he is
opposed to doing?
We need real socialism not nice-sounding phony
schemes if we are going to survive and live in a world at peace based on
mutual respect and cooperation.
Bernie Sanders is playing a
divisive role as he tries to separate socialists rather than bring us
all together. There is a model in this regard and it was the very
successful cooperation between socialists and Communists who built the
Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party into a united working class based people’s
party that took in liberals, progressives and leftists as it elected two
governors and all kinds of other politicians from township supervisors
to members of Congress... only the most sectarian leftists stayed aloof
from this party and refused to participate... this is the way forward.
Bernie Sanders and his supporters, and grassroots Democrats seeking
honest politics, should be encouraged and welcomed into such a
movement... but this won’t happen on its own... it needs to be talked
about, discussed and debated in public forums... we need to bring this
discussion into the public square very forthrightly because it is in the
public square where this discussion belongs.
Honest people will welcome this kind of discussion not try to shut it down.
