Bernie Sanders
314 pieces tagged “Bernie Sanders”, newest first.
Bernie's Conspiracy Theory
Bernie Sanders is the most prominent conspiracy theorist in America. He runs around the country saying that the economy is "rigged" by what he calls "the billionaire class." Sanders doesn't mean this metaphorically. He's dead serious. As he put it in his speech at Liberty University a couple of months ago, our economy is "designed by the wealthiest people in this country to benefit the wealthiest people in this country at the expense of everybody else."
Bernie's Foolish Crush on Sweden
Scandinavia is the American left's Shangri-La. It is the land of social democracy and of all good things. It is the answer to any objection that new welfare benefits can't be adopted here: But look how well they work in Sweden. Bernie Sanders reverted to this article of faith when challenged over his socialism at last week's Democratic debate. He invited America to sit at the knee of Scandinavia. "I think we should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway," he said, "and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people."
No, Bernie Sanders, Scandinavia Is Not a Socialist Utopia
When Bernie Sanders was asked during CNN's Democratic presidential debate how a self-proclaimed socialist could hope to be elected to the White House, he gave the answer he usually gives: Socialism has been wonderful for the countries of Scandinavia, and America should emulate their example.
Is Economic Equality a Moral Imperative?
America is more distant from the 1933 beginning of the New Deal (82 years) than that beginning was from the 1865 end of the Civil War (68 years). Both episodes involved the nation's understanding of equality: The war affirmed equality of natural rights, the New Deal addressed unequal social conditions. Today's Democratic Party is frozen, like a fly in amber, in the New Deal preoccupation — but with less excuse than Democrats had during the Great Depression. The party believes that economic inequality is an urgent problem, and that its urgency should be understood in terms of huge disparities of wealth. Neither proposition is (to use the term Jefferson used when he wrote equality into America's catechism) a self-evident truth.
Bernie Sanders Right at Home in Democratic Party
People initially were in disbelief that a card-carrying socialist such as Bernie Sanders could make a competitive bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, but I trust it's now obvious how wrong they were. Pointing to the rise of Donald Trump and Ben Carson in the Republican race, some say Sanders is doing well because this is a year of the outsiders. But to suggest there is commonality between Democratic outsiders and Republican ones is lazy thinking.
Democratic Party: Not for Grown-Ups
Think of today's Democratic Party as the little village of Hamelin. A piper called Bernie Sanders toots his socialist tune, and all the little Democrats skip along behind him to ... where exactly? According to the medieval legend, the Pied Piper of Hamelin led the children away and drowned them. "Socialist" was once an epithet in American politics, but the Obama years may have effected a change.
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Bernie Sanders' America
The raucous welcomes and thundering applause that have greeted America's newest (and oldest) political rock star, the septuagenarian Bernie Sanders, have launched a cottage industry of puzzled pundits trying to figure out the source of his appeal. Of course it's his ideas, his supporters have insisted, perhaps as well as his presentation style, which issues from an agreeable set of features topped by undisciplined strands of white hair, giving him a sort of aged, professorial look of a speaker waving his arms while hurling his points across the lectern before the class ends.
Bernie's Favored 'One Percenters'
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is having the time of his life. At 73, he is already as old as Ronald Reagan was when he ran for re-election in 1984. But Sanders is undoubtedly — as our friends are family are increasingly calling us — *spry*. And what a lark. He is leading Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire (his neighboring state) and is gaining on her in Iowa. What's up with this? Everyone who tells a pollster Bernie is the guy is poking a finger in Hillary's "inevitable" eye. A year ago, former Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick (D) warned Hillary that "inevitable" was not good for the party or good for her. He was right. President Lyndon B. Johnson was inevitable in 1968, the pundits and the pols all said. But anti-war activist Allard Lowenstein ran around Capitol Hill knocking on senators' doors until he found one — Gene McCarthy of Minnesota — who was willing to take on the man he presented as an ogre, Lyndon. We soon learned that the Inevitable LBJ had feet of clay. Does Hillary have a glass jaw?
Bernie Does Liberty University
Self-declared socialist and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders entered what his supporters must consider the belly of the beast on Monday. He spoke at the conservative evangelical Liberty University in Virginia. Some of those supporters sat in reserved seats, ensuring his remarks would be received with some applause. Liberal and Democratic speakers at Liberty are not as rare as one might think. In 1983, Sen. Ted Kennedy visited and spoke about religious freedom, standing up for the right of conservative evangelicals to be heard in the public square. Rev. Jesse Jackson delivered a message from Jerry Falwell's pulpit one Sunday morning. Donald Trump has also spoken at the school.
Rich Socialists and the Bernie Sanders Moment
California is the land of hypocrites. As I pulled into the parking lot adjacent to my radio station in Los Angeles, I noticed a Mercedes R500 sitting next to me. Between the Mercedes symbol and the R500 label sat a big, fat bumper sticker: "BERNIE SANDERS 2016." The Mercedes R500 retailed at $71,000 back in 2006, when the well-off young gentledriver's parents presumably purchased it. Now, their kid pulls up to the pricey Equinox gym (sticker price: $160 per month) with a bumper sticker touting the virtues of redistribution of wealth.