- Jan 30, 2020
- 457
- 159
Many individuals in the U.S. leaped at the chance to put Bernie Sanders in the White House because they thought he was promoting the ideal solution to unreliable health care, expensive higher education and an unfair financial system.
They chose wrong.
Socialism has failed in every single country that tried to employ it as an economic model, beginning with the Soviet Union. Israel and India tried it, then Britain, too. Britain and India definitely discarded it, Israel is not Socialist, but employs a welfare state for its Orthodox.
But first, are we talking about the kind of Socialism where the workers or groups of citizens own the factories, the farms and the banks? Do all citizens have access to education and training? Do workers have a huge say in production and policy? Or does the government own many businesses? Is there a high level of union participation? Is their a welfare state? Is there an economic or social coddling of the ill, elderly, single mothers, immigrants and the otherwise needy?
Because there is no one system of so-called Socialism. Those who still push for this economic model must recognize that it will always be a mix of private, public enterprises with government ownership tossed in.
Bernie fans have never explained in detail how they were going to convince Wall Street, manufacturers,, the tech industry, the service sector and of course, Congress, to adopt their version of Socialism.
The ones who swear Socialism works in Denmark, Sweden and Norway ignore that those countries at times boasted capitalist economies before implementing encompassing welfare states. Scandinavian economic models work because their populations adhere to strong social pacts, respect for workers and for each other. When will that ever exist in the U.S.?
What is needed in the U.S. are rational financial, corporate and political leaders who won't concentrate on their own financial self-interests. To expect the rich and selfish to stop and consider the needy is the same as expecting most drivers to stay off their phones.
By some miracle, if financial, corporate and political leaders can be convinced that a fair economic system guarantees a sound future, then there’s chance to change a few minds. But the U.S. was built on stolen land, centuries of genocide and Chattel Slavery. I doubt that most who benefited will ever be in a mood to be fair or share.
So attacking those who know greed will always win the day did not advance Bernie’s case. Nor did the many demands on social media platforms that the Democratic Party, (which nominated and then elected the first U.S. Black President), should be destroyed for the good of progressives.
Like it or not, Socialism is psychologically tied to the old Soviet Union and for many U.S. voters, the term conjures up visions of long bread lines and a collapsed USSR. That is a reality and there’s no getting around that. That’s why Bernie’s agenda was soundly defeated in two Dem Party primary seasons.
And had Bernie managed to win the 2020 Dem nomination, it would have led to the most lopsided Dem loss since George McGovern was destroyed by Richard Nixon in 1972. Maybe if Bernie supporters had employed “Economic Fairness” as a slogan, they would have done better. But only in the Dem primaries.
They chose wrong.
Socialism has failed in every single country that tried to employ it as an economic model, beginning with the Soviet Union. Israel and India tried it, then Britain, too. Britain and India definitely discarded it, Israel is not Socialist, but employs a welfare state for its Orthodox.
But first, are we talking about the kind of Socialism where the workers or groups of citizens own the factories, the farms and the banks? Do all citizens have access to education and training? Do workers have a huge say in production and policy? Or does the government own many businesses? Is there a high level of union participation? Is their a welfare state? Is there an economic or social coddling of the ill, elderly, single mothers, immigrants and the otherwise needy?
Because there is no one system of so-called Socialism. Those who still push for this economic model must recognize that it will always be a mix of private, public enterprises with government ownership tossed in.
Bernie fans have never explained in detail how they were going to convince Wall Street, manufacturers,, the tech industry, the service sector and of course, Congress, to adopt their version of Socialism.
The ones who swear Socialism works in Denmark, Sweden and Norway ignore that those countries at times boasted capitalist economies before implementing encompassing welfare states. Scandinavian economic models work because their populations adhere to strong social pacts, respect for workers and for each other. When will that ever exist in the U.S.?
What is needed in the U.S. are rational financial, corporate and political leaders who won't concentrate on their own financial self-interests. To expect the rich and selfish to stop and consider the needy is the same as expecting most drivers to stay off their phones.
By some miracle, if financial, corporate and political leaders can be convinced that a fair economic system guarantees a sound future, then there’s chance to change a few minds. But the U.S. was built on stolen land, centuries of genocide and Chattel Slavery. I doubt that most who benefited will ever be in a mood to be fair or share.
So attacking those who know greed will always win the day did not advance Bernie’s case. Nor did the many demands on social media platforms that the Democratic Party, (which nominated and then elected the first U.S. Black President), should be destroyed for the good of progressives.
Like it or not, Socialism is psychologically tied to the old Soviet Union and for many U.S. voters, the term conjures up visions of long bread lines and a collapsed USSR. That is a reality and there’s no getting around that. That’s why Bernie’s agenda was soundly defeated in two Dem Party primary seasons.
And had Bernie managed to win the 2020 Dem nomination, it would have led to the most lopsided Dem loss since George McGovern was destroyed by Richard Nixon in 1972. Maybe if Bernie supporters had employed “Economic Fairness” as a slogan, they would have done better. But only in the Dem primaries.