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writing for godot

Bernie Sanders – Socialist Lite

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Written by Bob Maschi   
Wednesday, 17 June 2015 06:34
I respect Bernie Sanders. I’ve watched his political career since the early 1980s when he was Mayor of Burlington, Vermont. I lived in a neighboring state and he was an inspiration to a young, radical socialist like myself. He said a lot of good things. He had courage. And he won elections too!

When the country decided to commit slow suicide by leaping off the right-wing cliff and electing Ronald Reagan as president (cripes, twice?), Mayor Bernie Sanders was declaring himself a socialist. When, with the election of the first George Bush, the country was handed over to the billionaire class, ‘socialist’ Bernie Sanders became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. When the Democrats abandoned their façade of representing poor and working people by lurching to the right and electing Bill Clinton (cripes, twice?), Bernie was the only member of the House to openly describe himself as a socialist. Even after America’s presidency had become an inherited position with the rule of the second Bush (cripes, twice!), Bernie Sanders ran for the US Senate, again claiming himself a socialist, and won.

Bernie Sander; the socialist. Or is he?

We have a real problem with political definitions in this country. Liberal, conservative, socialist, communist, anarchist, libertarian (and there are others) usually mean something different for each individual. This makes political discussion difficult and, too often, unnecessarily abrasive – even when communicating with people one generally agrees with.

And one phrase that we rarely hear is: social democrat (small d). Basically, a social democrat is someone who wants to support the capitalist economic system through reforms – but does not want to end it. Fundamentally different from a socialist who wants to end capitalism, replacing it with a far more humane and equitable system (please, let’s save the difference between communism and socialism for another article). There is a definite gray area between a social democrat and a socialist – some overlapping of tactics and principles. For example, some socialists want to abolish capitalism slowly through elections, regulations and other political and economic measures. From the outside these socialists look very much like a social democrat.

So is Bernie Sanders a socialist or a social democrat? There are a few clues.

Senate Campaign Endorsements
In 2005, when Bernie Sanders was running for the US Senate, he was endorsed by Senator Harry Reid, Senator Chuck Schumer (then Chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee) and Senator Barack Obama. Anyone who accuses these pro-business Democrats of being socialists probably stands to the right of Mussolini (or watches way too much Fox News).

Pro War
From Afghanistan to Kosovo, Bernie Sanders has supported war as well as the financing of the military industrial complex (no, not as bad as most, but that only attests to how deep down we have fallen).

Israel
There might be one or two socialists out there who support Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians, but they keep pretty quiet about it. While many Americans are confused about the conflict between Israel and Palestine, Bernie blames almost all of the problems on the Palestinians. Most socialists view the Palestinians as indigenous people fighting for rights to their homeland.

Democrat
Dump the right-wing talking point that ‘Democrat’ is a synonym for ‘socialist’. Unless one’s intention is to politically sabotage that pro-business party from the inside, there is no good reason for a socialist to be seen with a big D next to his name. A socialist in the same room, never mind the same political party, as the likes of the Clintons? Oh pleeeease. When Bernie decided to run as a Democrat it became a pretty sure bet that he’d mellowed away from his socialist roots.

The C word
It might seem trivial, but it’s actually major. I have never heard Bernie Sanders utter the C word: Capitalism. Socialists sprinkle their discussions with it. We must! Opposing capitalism is what we’re all about! You take the C word out of our vocabulary and our shouts turn into whispers.


Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Bernie has a long range plan to hide his socialism behind a liberal/social democrat mask in order to eventually crush capitalism as it nods off to reality programming. But even if that is so, Bernie Sanders is no Eugene Debs.

Debs ran for president 4 times before 1920 on the Socialist Party ticket (against Democrats, yes). In 1918 he went to prison for speaking out against World War I (simply speaking out, yes). And from prison, he ran for president again! Debs was against war. He was against imperialism. He was against capitalism and nothing and no one could make him shut up about it.

Personally, I like Bernie Sanders. When I was young his courage was inspiring. I’d rather hang with him than with any of the other presidential candidates (well, except for maybe Ted Cruz – he’s a freaking riot!). I’m not going to pick fights with people who consider voting for Bernie Sanders. But Bernie Sanders is no Eugene Debs. And Debs was definitely a socialist.

Some Eugene Debs Quotes:

“I have no country to fight for. My country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world.”

“The issue is socialism versus capitalism. I am for Socialism because I am for humanity. We have been cursed with the reign of gold long enough.”

“The class which has the power to rob upon a large scale has also the power to control the government and legalize their robbery.”

“The Republican and Democratic parties are alike capitalist parties — differing only in being committed to different sets of capitalist interests — they have the same principles under varying colors, are equally corrupt and are one in their subservience to capital and their hostility to labor.”


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