Bernie's Policies Are the Answer to the Rise of the Far-Right

By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Facebook Page

01 June 16

ar right, neo-fascists are on the rise around the world. Last month nearly half the electorate of Austria voted for the presidential candidate of a party established by former Nazis, and other European nations are grappling with similar waves of hatefulness – all spawned by economic stresses easily blamed on “outsiders” (immigrants, Muslims, people of color).

Sound familiar? Trumpism is America’s version.

Look behind the economic stresses and what do you see? Economies that are no longer building strong middle classes, to which the poor and working class can join. Instead, middle classes are collapsing. Jobs are being outsourced abroad while robots and other new technologies displace millions more. And instead of responding to the collapse, governments are adopting austerity economics or trickle-down economics, and cutting public services, while the rich get richer and pay less and less in taxes. It’s a vicious cycle.

To my mind, Bernie’s policies and the “political revolution” necessary to put them in place offer a way of reversing this in America. What do you think?