2016 Postmortem

Last edited Thu May 26, 2016, 10:58 PM - Edit history (1)

I haven't seen any signs of socialism by Bernie or his supporters. A determination to establish rule by the minority is not socialist. Socialism starts with a commitment to equality, economic and social. Bernie has built a campaign around restoring the white male bourgeois to its position atop the capitalist world order. There is no critique of capital, only of industries that profit in ways other than killing. Note he despises Verizon and Disney but insists gun corporations profits need to to be protected against the rights of mere citizens to petition in courts. He supporters the F-35 and the MIC, subsidies for big sugar, but opposes companies in the financial sector. Apparently profiting from killing, war, and obesity is acceptable, by from lending and financial services is not. Somehow I missed that part of Marx.

Ah, but we are told he is a "democratic socialist," who has decided popular elections need to be overturned in favor of corporate polls. So not much concern for democracy either.

There is nothing left about any of what we have seen recently. Without a basic commitment to equality--of any kind, whether rights, opportunity, or economic--there is no socialism. He has proclaimed that the votes of the young and independents matter more than the majority of people of color, women, the disabled, elderly, and other Democrats throughout the nation. Violence is justified because Republicans are not allowed to run the Democratic Party. I see nothing leftist, socialist, or democratic in any of that. I see only entitlement and political opportunism.