On Last Night with Seth Meyers, Bernie Sanders talks about what we all have to gain by embracing democratic Socialism. Most people know socialism is not a dirty word. It is only the Teabagger types who use the word Socialism freely along with communist, fascist and other words they don’t understand.Whether you’re a fan of Bernie Sanders or not, the discussion is thought provoking.
The kind of Socialism Bernie Sanders advocates is only for people who have tired of having billionaires decide elections. It is for for people who only want to have to work one job to survive – and maybe get healthcare, retirement – and dare you hope – vacation!
We have become so nationalistic and frankly busy making ends meet – we’re convinced that America is Number One in every category. A comparison with countries like Sweden, Denmark and Norway is eye-opening. In those countries, people have the right to health care, education, child care, and a strong retirement program. Their quality of life is unquestionably better. We’re often unaware of how people in other countries live, it could be to our advantage to adopt some of their policies if they work better than ours.
America is still tops in the world at some things. No one takes better care of their billionaires – at the cost of the middle class. We don’t ask that they contribute their fair share. We just treasure them. And while we’re on top – don’t forget, we are number one in another area. America has the highest rate of childhood poverty on earth! Yay Us.
Seth Meyers points out that a redistribution of wealth always gets framed as Socialism or something much worse. Sanders suggests that we’ve already had that redistribution, and it all went to the Top One Percent. What’s needed is another redistribution – to the middle class. It’s hard to argue with that.
In parting, I came across a recent Tweet by John Fugelsang.
“They tell me @SenSanders can’t win b/c America won’t vote for a Socialist Jew. I tell them America celebrates a Socialist Jew every Dec 25.”