Robert Borosage has a long history in service of progressive causes. He has been an ardent supporter of Bernie Sanders.
In this post, he explains why Bernie endorsed Hillary and how the movement that Bernie started will make a difference and rebuild the Democratic party.
He writes:
The political revolution that fueled the Sanders campaign must continue to build. It must use the battles during Clinton’s first term to deepen popular understanding, to consolidate a multi-racial movement, to reach out to disaffected working and poor people to show there is an alternative – and it is not on the right. It has to mobilize to demonstrate that business as usual cannot continue. The massive, non-violent demonstrations in support of Black Lives Matter illustrates what can be done. The entrenched interests must be challenged frontally, uncomfortably, so they too understand that something must be done. The political revolution can then capture the energy for change to challenge those in both parties who are standing in the way.
Sanders has it right: The next step is to work to ensure that Donald Trump is routed in 2016, and to use the Democratic platform as the minimum standard that all Democratic candidates must endorse. Sanders isn’t selling out; he is staying in, loyal to the political revolution that he has helped to build.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Really glad you see it this way, Diane. Bernie was never going to go hide…he put his life on the line to build this movement and it will definitely influence the Dem leadership for they, including the DNC hacks, see that he came close to winning the nomination. His voters are the people who can, will, push Hillary into office.
However, if she trivializes Bernie’s stances, and Bernie himself, she will have a huge group fighting her. Hopefully she is too smart not to keep him close (as Obama did with her).
BTW…Bob Borasage is a very astute commentator, but not enough people read and quote him…so glad you did.
Reblogged this on DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing and commented:
Thank you for rational thought. #stillsanders IF you put your trust in the man who never really wanted to be president, who only wanted to change the values of the Democratic party, then put your trust in his decisions.
Thank you for rational thought.
#stillsanders IF you put your trust in the man who never really wanted to be president, who only wanted to change the values of the Democratic party, then put your trust in his decisions.
Bernie never really wanted to be president? Bernie busted his hump and worked tirelessly to be president; in my opinion, I think he did indeed want to become president tempered by the knowledge that it was a long shot.
In a similar situation in 2000, enough progressives defected to vote for Ralph Nader so as to help elect GW Bush. I think enough older voters remember that so as to motivate them to support Hillary Clinton over a third party candidate. A lot of younger voters don’t have that historical memory or appreciation.
Nader had very little to do with Bush getting elected, but somehow that canard refuses to die. There were 300,000 registered Democrats who voted for Bush, that might have had something to do with it. And anyway, Gore, riding the coattails of a president who was very popular at the time couldn’t beat a failed businessman whose only qualification was being the son of a former president, not even in his own state. I think that’s on him. As it will be with Hillary if she can’t even beat Trump.
Well said Dienne! I think the repubz will dump tRump for either kasich, ryan, romney or some other dog-whistle bigot, any of which could beat hillary. The elites in both parties detest their base and only really listen to their 1%er masters, many of which are the same people and corporations! hillary has done zero to appeal to Bernie Sanders supporters and has even reached out to jeb bush, ted cruz contributors and the koch brothers! If hillary loses, she along with the “fix is in” dnc/wasserman-schultz, the corrupt, corporate main stream media and her blind faithful fans are who should be to blame!
Dianne and Paul…re Nader and the Gore loss…you left out the main factor of the Rehquist Court.
“Seven justices (the five Justice majority plus Breyer and Souter) agreed that there was an Equal Protection Clause violation in using different standards of counting in different counties.[30]
Five justices agreed that December 12 (the date of the decision) was the deadline Florida had established for recounts (Kennedy, O’Connor, Rehnquist,[31] Scalia and Thomas in support; Breyer, Ginsburg, Souter and Stevens opposed). Justices Breyer and Souter wanted to remand the case to the Florida Supreme Court to permit that court to establish uniform standards of what constituted a legal vote and then manually recount all ballots using those standards.[32][33]
Three justices (Rehnquist, Scalia and Thomas) argued that the Florida Supreme Court had acted contrary to the intent of the Florida legislature. Four justices (Breyer, Souter, Ginsburg, and Stevens) specifically disputed this in their dissenting opinions, and the remaining two Justices (Kennedy and O’Connor) declined to join Rehnquist’s concurrence on the matter.”
SCOTUS, with Rhenquist leading the charge, ruling made Bush the Prez despite Nader voters.
Paul they are not dumping Trump and you are correct the others may be even worse . The difference between the two party’s is that the Republicans manufactured that angry base.Never expecting to lose control. Without that ugly base there is no party . The angry base in the Democratic party is a reaction to that party’s policy.
Repost from FB, but give real hope for us Bernie supporters:
I’ve seen this posted on different Bernie groups. If your a person who is pissed at Bernie for endorsing Hilzabub…read this! If your a person depressed and sad about it…read this. If you lost faith…read this. THERE IS A MADNESS TO BERNIE’S METHOD.
FAQ time:
Q. Why did Bernie endorse Hillary now?
A. They threatened to completely shut him out of the convention if he didn’t.
Q. Couldn’t he have said screw them and go and fight at the convention anyway?
A. No. Hillary has more delegates, Superdelegates, and supporters on the DNC rules committee. They would have voted down every one of our platforms, denied Bernie the opportunity to speak, and basically shut him out of the entire process. All the leverage he has gained up to this point would be gone.
Q. So wait, Bernie DIDN’T quit today?
A. No. He had to say she won the primary, he endorses her and will help the party defeat Trump, yadda yadda but he DID NOT concede. There is a very big and important difference. Had he conceded, all of his delegates would go to Hillary and he would no longer be an option for nominee.
Q. So Bernie can actually still win??
A. YES. And if he wasn’t still TRYING to win, he would have conceded. The ONLY option he had to get to the convention with his delegates behind him and have a chance to still win was to do what he did today. He is not a traitor. He didn’t sell us out. He did the only possible thing he could have done to keep fighting for the nomination.
Q. So how can Bernie still win if he’s losing the delegate count and he just said he will help Hillary win the election?
A. By far the most important thing to the DNC, even more important than making sure Hillary beats Bernie, is making sure the Democratic nominee beats the Republicans in November. They scrutinize every poll, every opinion of the public, every event to judge whether a candidate is strong enough to win in November. There are A LOT of things going on right now that show how weak of a general election candidate Hillary Clinton is:
-66% of the country sees her as untrustworthy
-60% thinks she should have been indicted for the email scandal
-A lot of Bernie supporters won’t vote for her
-Congress has requested the Department of Justice investigate her for lying under oath about the email scandal
-There’s a possibility more emails will be leaked by wikileaks or hackers further proving her guilt
-Many believe the FBI is secretly investigating the Clinton Foundation
-Her “wins” during the primary havr been tainted with accusations of fraud, suppression, lawsuits, and investigations
And then there’s Bernie. An honest candidate people trust and whose approval rating and trustworthy rating crushes Clinton’s. This is the argument Bernie will make at the convention. With all his 1,900 delegates inside arguing this case and 100,000 supporters outside arguing this case, we hope the DNC realizes he’s the only choice. He CAN win the convention, but he has to get there first. That’s why he endorsed her today.
Q. So it’s still important that all of his delegates go to the convention and we all still March on it like we planned?
A. It’s more important now than it ever was before.
Q. What if the DNC still refuses to nominate him at the convention? Can he still run third party now that he endorsed her?
A. Yes. In fact, running third party has never been an option until AFTER the convention. We need to stick with Bernie and see this through to the convention. He’s led us this far. Do not abandon him now.
Q. What if he loses at the convention and doesn’t run third party, but instead endorses Hillary 100% and asks us to vote for her?
A. Then our revolution continues without him and we continue to fight against Hillary Clinton and the DNC all the way up to November and beyond by voting for someone like Jill Stein or writing Bernie in. But the time for that is NOT here yet.
Q. So what did Bernie accomplish with this move?
A. Backed into a corner, facing the entire political pressure of the Democratic Party and the DNC, robbed of a right to claim he should be winning if not for a rigged process, and faced with the threat of being shut out of the convention completely Bernie:
1. Managed to stay in the race and secure a prime speaking slot at a contested convention which he can turn into a floor fight
2. Kept all of his delegates to use as leverage in that floor fight
3. Got tens of thousands of people to “Like” and “follow” Green Party candidate Jill Stein on social media
4. Amplified the #NeverHilliary screams of his supporters for all the media and Superdelegates to see 12 days before the convention.
Anyone trashing Bernie today needs to wake up and respect the masterful chess move he just made.
That was a breath of fresh air. Thank you.
After seeing the latest tied pols in Ohio and the latest national poll I’m inclined to have a little hope.
A big YES to wdf1 and to Paul Chafez….however, the game plan keeps losing sight on the Libertarian Party which has double the voters, so far, than the Greens. The team of Johnson and Weld, two former governors who are not extremists, looks good not only to disaffected Dems, but also to the huge group of Repubs who do NOT want Trump.
I am amazed that so many thoughtful informed folks avoid learning more about this alternative.
From The Hill….
July 12, 2016, 01:17 pm
Gary Johnson woos ‘burned’ Sanders supporters
By Jesse Byrnes
AddThis Sharing Buttons11.1K
102
“Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson on Tuesday dismissed Bernie Sanders’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton while calling on Sanders supporters to back him.
“If you’re still ‘feeling the Bern’ — and feeling burned, because the Clinton machine rolled over your ideals — there is another option,” Johnson says in a video message posted to Facebook.
“The Libertarian Party nominee will be on the ballot in all 50 states,” Johnson said. “Don’t let your voice go unheard. We can still fight for a future to believe in.”
A Pew Research Center survey released last week found Johnson with 11 percent support, behind Clinton, at 45 percent, and Trump, at 36 percent. Other national polls since then have found his support ranging between 5 percent and 9 percent.”
The two former governors running together as Libertarians are more qualified to be President and VP than either Hillary or Drumph.
———————————————————–
“Governor Gary Johnson, who has been referred to as the ‘most fiscally conservative Governor’ in the country, was the Republican Governor of New Mexico from 1994-2003.
A successful businessman before running for Governor of New Mexico in 1994 … READ MORE
Governor Bill Weld was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1990 with 51% of the vote, and re-elected in 1994 with 71% of the vote.
While in office, Bill cut taxes 21 times, including a phase out of the long term capital gains tax, and”… READ
————————————————————-
I am not personally endorsing Johnson and Weld…but am shocked that the country is not even including them in the conversation.
As they are both conservative Repubs, I would probably never have voted for them, but comparing their proven legislative ability with both major party candidates, they come across as far more valid with their creds…and neither has been charged with any frauds, lying, or bigotry.
I wonder why the Bush family, and all the top Repubs who are avoiding the Convention, and all Repubs who suffer at the thought of voting for Trump, don’t endorse this pair who reflect most Repubs real values.
Libertarians hate public education and want to privatize the whole system. That’s a non-starter, as far as I’m concerned. Libertarians want to privatize all government except the military.
Threatened Out West is correct about Libertarians. The would be a wet dream come true for the koch brothers! The libertarians are okay on defunding the war machine and legalizing/decriminalizing drugs and prostiturion, but their deregulation of everything is just plain stupid!
Fresh off the press…Huff Post says…
“Veepstakes Not Over: Tim Kaine, Other VP Frontrunners Get Invitations To Speak At Convention
Tim Kaine, Cory Booker and Xavier Becerra were invited Tuesday to speak at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, sources familiar with the planning of the event told The Huffington Post.
The news is significant because of a report that same day from The New York Times saying that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) had been given a prime speaking slot for Tuesday night of the convention. It’s a good place to be, but it’s not the vice presidential nominee’s spot, and the report immediately raised suspicion that Warren had been ruled out by the Clinton campaign for the No. 2 spot, with the Times calling it “an apparent sign that Senator Elizabeth Warren will not be named Hillary Clinton’s running mate.” The Clinton campaign has repeatedly said no VP decision has been made and that Warren is under consideration.”
———————————————
So who would vote for Hillary with Cory Booker as VP? He who helped destroy NJ education and who loves charters…and Wall Street?
Who would vote for HIllary with Tim Kaine as VP? He whose religious beliefs deny “choice”????
It doesn’t matter who Hillary’s VP is unless she dies or becomes incapacitated while in office (again, no, I’m not wishing for that). Whether the VP is Booker or Warren or Sanders himself, it will be completely the Hillary show and the agenda will be hers alone. Hillary would never allow her VP to do anything she didn’t specifically approve.
Anyway, whatever concerns people might have about Booker or Kaine they should have about Hillary herself.
Ellen: Johnson frightens me more than Trump’s demagoguery . I think its a big show . Not worried by his finger on the trigger . He loves Putin . Hillary sees Russia as a threat to be dealt with by bringing NATO and Nukes right to the Russian border . What frightens me is that once elected he will work with the rest of the Republicans to pursue the Ryan agenda not all that much different than the Johnson agenda.Which as a major Oligarch is in his personal benefit.
http://www.alternet.org/dont-be-fooled-pot-loving-libertarian-gary-johnson-he-works-1
Agree with some of what you say Joel…but I think Trump might really be in the throes of dementia with his lack of being able to control his anger and temper his behaviors. His prefrontal lobes (the censors/monitors of what he says) do not seem to be working. He cannot seem to control his impulses, his thoughts, his rages.
And yes, Paul Ryan is already caught up in this murky mix.
As to Johnson and Weld…doubt that they are true Libertarians…but that was what was legitimately left for them to denounce Trump and give Repubs a potential acceptable alternative. This is all such a huge mess on both sides of the aisle.
I am far more worried that David Duke is once again running for Congress. I would bet he might win handily given the mood of Trump supporters.
And Dienne…as to VP choices, could not disagree more. For Corey Booker and Tim Kaine to be on her short list indicates how she sees governing…scares me as much as Trump.
If Trump chooses Flynn for VP it would be a game changer…she could lose with her defects and her choices of those surrounding her.
“The massive, non-violent demonstrations in support of Black Lives Matter illustrates what can be done. The entrenched interests must be challenged frontally, uncomfortably, so they too understand that something must be done”
The massive, sorry no it hasn’t been massive .It will be crushed as Occupy was. The FBI is already working on the project. Over 200 non violent protestors arrested in Louisiana .
A sicko with a gun who was no different than every other sicko,with a gun ,(one kills babies another cops ),has given them the excuse. Not that they ever need an excuse. Retired me can deal with an arrest record and even the cost of that arrest . How many of those 200 will be out again . How many others discouraged .
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/fbi-greenlights-crackdown-black-lives-matter-protesters
I have admired Sanders for many years he has always put his heart and soul out for the American people. He should have called for a 500,000 man/women march on Philadelphia.
That is a massive demonstration that is a movement that can neither be crushed or ignored. Then he could have supported Clinton at the convention from a position of strength.Perhaps after getting everything in the platform he wanted. No one on this site trusts Hillary to do the right thing . Why ????!!
Obama has expanded the federal government and its deficit spending exponentially. Bernie and Hillary will expand it even more. This communist concept coming out of the UN and supported by the left that there must be a “redistribution of wealth” which just means stealing basically has been discredited several times in the 20th century. Pol Pot, Lenin, Stalin, Mao ended up slaughtering millions of their own people in an effort to eliminate the upper class, the educated people, supposedly so that there would be a “fair” playing field for the “working man.” This is hogwash and should be denounced as such. They wanted to eliminate any one smart enough to oppose them.
Teachers especially should be wary of totalitarians who identify as communists or socialists because it is the intellectuals who must be eliminated in order for them to stay in power. Anti-intellectualism is a common facet of totalitarian dictatorships to oppress political dissent. During the 1970s in Cambodia under the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, people were killed for being academics or even for merely wearing eyeglasses (as it suggested literacy).
In China, the Red Guards purged the country, the military, urban workers, and the leaders of the CCP, until there remained no one politically dangerous to Mao. The Red Guards were particularly brutal in attacking their teachers and professors, causing most schools and universities to be shut down once the Cultural Revolution began.
In a free society, different people will have different levels of motivation and skill and creativity and should be allowed to use that potential to make as much money as they want. They should be allowed to keep that money and use it to increase their productivity.
I understand that we no longer have a strictly capitalist market because the collusion between government agencies (which are supposed to be guides and watchdogs) and big corporations is well documented. No-bid government contracts and monopolistic practices are rampant. So when corporations such as Merck and Pfizer and tax exempt foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Clinton Foundation are so rich that they control the legislative, administrative and judicial branches of our government the idea that we have a free market is no longer tenable. Our constitution has been ignored for quite some time now. We are being surveilled and tracked daily. Can we really call this a democratic republic any more? We are leaning way left lately. The fact that Bernie, a self-professed socialist, is so well loved is a real testament to that fact.
This idea that because not everyone is a genius, or even a hardworking producer of sorts, therefore no one should be allowed to get ahead is a stultifying, deadly policy that results in less productivity, less wealth creation for anyone, great poverty and depression of wages, goods, services and mental wellness. It has been proven over and over not to work.
Why are people still holding out for some “different kind of communism” where the wealth will be shared equally and it will all work out beautifully this time. No one will die. It will be great.
Socialism, communism, call it what you want has never worked and cannot work because it is inherently flawed. It doesn’t acknowledge human nature. It insists it can force its way. That’s why people end up dying. Read some history and grow up.
By the way, I am not a Trump supporter, just in case you want to ignore everything I have written based on that mistaken assumption. I am a registered Democrat who is wondering why at this point.
Will this post be tolerated by the supposedly tolerant left who find free speech less and less tolerable? I wonder.
Certainly tolerated: who is advocating communism . Who is even advocating socialism . The guy that calls himself a Democratic Socialist is merely an FDR liberal, guess what if FDR would have run six times he would have won a sixth term as Truman was his filth.
Me, I hate Socialism but I love Social Security. I will love Medicare even more . I love Public Schools and Public Parks and Public Roads Public water and Public Health which prevented Ebola from devastating this country as it did Africa . I who have had Cadillac Health Care from the time of my birth wish that every body’s employer provided them with low cost excellent health care . Fewer and fewer did, in fact in the decade before Romneycare was made a National program we can thank the right wing Heritage foundation for its design .Eleven percent fewer Americans had employer sponsored healthcare and that model was going the way of the dodo bird with the middle class .
Now Obama/Romney care sucks . So I would like to see that we join communist countries like Canada and Australia and provide Medicare for all.
Now I don’t know how old you are but there was a time in this country that many State University systems were free I graduated one in NYC in the early seventies. The entire California State University system was free .Most state University systems were so low cost that the paper boy . It used to be a job for children who couldn’t work full time . He could save enough money to go to many of them.
It was Dick Cheney that said” Deficits Don’t Matter” and Richard Nixon that said we are all Keynesian’s now so I would have to put my self in league with those two commies when it comes to worrying about the budget . We have now entered into an era when you may soon be paying banks to hold your money . Hardly an argument for Government spending crowding private interests out of access to borrowed capital. Inflation is under 2%.
Again, yes the there have been many brutal dictatorships who were communist lead and I am not here to advocate for communism nor discuss the pros and cons of any economic system . But the base definition of economics I was given was ” Economics is the distribution of goods and services . “Who Gets What “”Politics is who decides who gets what.” So maybe you think that its okay for one family to control more wealth than 50% of the country . The top 0.1% more wealth than the bottom 90% I see something a little unfair in that. Something unsustainable in that . There are no free markets, governments pick winners and losers all the time . Bill Gates has 47 billion think of that number a minute 1000x1000x1000x47 great what would he have without patent protection.. Enforced by the CENTRAL GOVERNMENT, For an operating system that he did not build nor computers that he did not invent. Nor as Al Gore said an internet that was built with Government incubated dollars .
Back to those dictatorships a second as Harry Truman said “but he is our SOB” we have overthrown and still are as recently as last month more democratically elected Governments than you can count on your fingers and toes. Many times it resulted in death squads disappearances and tens of thousands of deaths. Those children coming over the southern border from Honduras Guatemala El Salvador were running from American created disasters. Notice non of them were running from Nicaragua the Socialist government in the region and the poorest. Now god knows I would not want to live in Cuba vs the richest country on Earth . But if I had to choose to be an average resident of Cuba or Columbia another horrendous nation with death squads . Or the three previously mentioned I might choose Fidel . I watched 55,000 American boys die in Vietnam a million Vietnamese so that Nike can manufacture sneakers there and China manufacture almost everything else . Our hands have not been free of atrocities.
I hope I was tolerant enough And I hope I can still get on a Plane .
Dawn…have been so glad that you have come back lately, and you may remember that we have, on occasion, been in sync as to economics (which perhaps you too teach)….and you actually have praised my views on credit default swaps and collateralized debt obligations….but some of what you write above in your historical analysis of communist, socialist, and leftie behaviors, just blew me away.
“In a free society, different people will have different levels of motivation and skill and creativity and should be allowed to use that potential to make as much money as they want. They should be allowed to keep that money and use it to increase their productivity”…you say.
Wow!
Putting aside the biblical testament that 1/10 of the fields should be left for the poor, and, a society can only be judged by how it treats the weakest among us….I must disagree with you.
As you know from your studies of many of the world’s economists and historians, “redistribution” of wealth to effect a measure of equality (a parity of goods for the Sustenance of all, writes Heilbronner in Learning from the Wordly Philosphers) has been not only accepted practice in most nations, but also can be traced back as far as
Cro Magnon tribal groups.
Because Sam Walton was both very smart, shrewd, and a hard worker with a vast plan, does not mean that ANY of his progeny has the same talent, yet through the laws guiding inheritance, they have accumulated much of the wealth of our nation and are the richest family in the US. This same scenario includes the Kochs, the Buffets, the Mungers, the Wassermans, and others of the billionaire class which has grown exponentially over the last few decades….leaving the rest of America, and much of the world in the dust. Some of this vast wealth is ill gotten gains such as we see today with Donald Trump. Manipulating the laws does not mean one is doing anything productive for society…but Milken and others have shown us repeatedly that nudging or smashing or twisting the law can make you a fortune.
Many here at this site are highly educated, highly motivated, and creative people, who may have chosen to be public school teachers, or university professors, for they are not driven by acquisition, but does that mean they are less worthy than those you indicate have “different levels of motivation and skill and creativity”???
I am shocked at your caustic and to me, irrational, view that only what you hail as a major force of who deserves wealth, I may feel are the greedy, slick, free loaders who have the preponderance of society’s wealth because of an accident of birth. These free loaders keep their inherited lucre in off shore banks and pay no taxes. They create NO jobs (since it is fact that jobs are created mainly by small businesses) and they feed off the work ethic of all others.
How about if we just dispense with the silly word “redistribution” as it implies that there is some sort of natural distribution to begin with. It was not and is not divinely ordained that the rich should get all the money and resources. If you believe the Bible, just the opposite, in fact. But even if you don’t, humanity alone should tell you that the top 1% or even the top .1% or .01% can’t keep hoovering everything up and leaving the rest of us eating dust.
Nicely said Ellen :
I would argue that Sam Walton was not only shrewd. He was enabled by labor law to avoid unionization. Which allowed him to pay a lower wage scale than his competitors who were sharing more of their profits with their workforce in the form of increased wages and benefits. Certainly without Taft Hartley which Truman described as an assault on the First Amendment , no company the size of Walmart would be none union . I would argue that Walton supply chain to China taken advantage of by his heirs was enabled by successive presidents not by eliminating tariffs which were never very high, but by assuring that American business interests in China were protected by treaty . Not to mention the role of government in assuring that labor unrest was never an issue or in providing the welfare subsidies OUT OF MY HARD EARNED TAX DOLLARS to make up for the wages he was not paying. So yes here we again see how governments, Politics ,influence markets determining “who gets what when and how” . To state that what has happened to our nation is turning way left as Dawn has , is a little incomprehensible . I don’t know whether to consult Orwell or London when an Oligarchy driven by wealth is called left or socialist.
I will stick with both Roosevelt’s more Commies.
Franklyn :
“They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.”
Teddy:
“We grudge no man a fortune in civil life if it is honorably obtained and well used. It is not even enough that it should have been gained without doing damage to the community. We should permit it to be gained only so long as the gaining represents benefit to the community. This, I know, implies a policy of a far more active governmental interference with social and economic conditions in this country than we have yet had, but I think we have got to face the fact that such an increase in governmental control is now necessary.”
“No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned. Every dollar received should represent a dollar’s worth of service rendered — not gambling in stocks, but service rendered. The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more effective — a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion, and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate.”
Some how Dawn that period of time is seen as an “American Golden Age”. Nostalgia perhaps, but I think a rapidly rising middle class had a little to do with it. A middle class / working class ,who created growth and wealth by spending disposable income. Something I would say is lacking today even with the addition of many more two income households and increase educational credentials.
none =non that edit button . never see till I post
Joel Herman,
Your opinions are so similar to mine. I wish I had written it.
Let me add my two cents.
There have been two major laws passed by congress one during George Bush and another under Obama administrations.
The first one is Medicare Part D under Bush. It was the largest giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry. Let me illustrate. I take generic form of Lipitor. My copay is 4 dollars for three months. Medicare pays 484 dollars to the manufacturer. I checked with the drug store and they can sell to me my medicine for about 40 dollars without any insurance but they are not permitted to so. If they try the computer tells them that I am on Medicare will not allow them to sell it to me. May be I can get it from Canada and save the country about 484 dollars.
Medicare is not permitted to negotiate with pharmaceutical industry. Therefore this not a give way to me but it is to the pharmaceutical industry.
The second one is the Affordable Care Act by Obama. Once again the government has no negotiating power and they subsidize the Health Care industry. It provides a way for the industry to grow at the cost of our government. Under the act the health care industry is protected from any losses. They simply can waste money, overspend because Uncle Sam provides guaranteed profits. Once again a giveaway to the industry.
I am all for a single payer system similar to Medicare, but not the current version of Medicare, but Medicare with teeth to negotiate with the health care and pharmaceutical industry. I do not believe that democrats or republicans (Republicats) are willing to go this direction because the health care industry owns them.
Every citizen is entitled to Heath care just like air, water and reasonable profit. But no one is entitled to obscene profits in my opinion.
The only new major laws passed by congress in the last 20 years are giveaways to big business. We cannot continue in this direction too long without major consequences.
Ellen,
Perhaps you misunderstood me. Read my statement again. “In a free society, different people will have different levels of motivation and skill and creativity and should be allowed to use that potential to make as much money as they want. They should be allowed to keep that money and use it to increase their productivity” That applies to teachers as much as it applies to anyone else. My mind was not on billionaires when I wrote that.
I also stated that we don’t really have a free market any more because people like Bill Gates are cheaters who create monopolies and buy media and legislation and judicial outcomes to suit their fancy. I fault the media as much as anything for the financial misdeeds of the Kochs and the Rockefellers because we have no more muckrakers who get any real air play. I don’t consider those people to have any great skill or creativity. I can’t speak to their motivation but from all appearances it seems they like to amass large sums of money and then throw it around to be able to control everything. It is exactly those people who are interested in establishing a one world government under a “benevolent” dictator because they want to control the masses. The masses are more easily controlled if they are managed by a welfare state which Obama has increased exponentially and Hillary and Bernie would continue to expand.
Bill Gates is a lefty who gives lots of money to the UN. The UN is an institution whose inception was a communist dream (Alger Hiss, communist spy, infiltrated our government and then helped start the UN and went to work for them.) The UN is a huge threat to the sovereignty of our democratic republic. It wants nothing less than to erase all national borders and create nation-less regions to be controlled by the UN in terms of resources, energy use, education (Common Core), etc. 173 heads of state signed that cockamamie Agenda 2030 agreement in September.
Now each country ti supposed to be limiting its carbon footprint and its use of resources for the good of the planet. This is a ruse to get people to submit to their own extinction. It is a very evil plan of depopulation. If you ask the top billionaires what their main concern for the future is and what they want to spend a good portion of their money on they will say curbing population growth. This is why I say that socialism always ends badly because at its core is the concept of eugenics. Darwin didn’t just convince people there was no God, he also convinced them that there is such a thing as a useless human being who doesn’t deserve to reproduce or even eat. Hitler, Stalin and Mao all considered it proper to “cull the hear” and eliminate any weakness from their populations because Darwin placed people on par with animals.
Nowhere in my statement is there any mention of being unkind to the poor or disabled or fragile elderly people. And the Judaic Law of allowing the poor glean the fields was a good solution. However, that is my point. That was an individual mandate that was not enforced by the government. God fearing people have the heart and the generosity to help the poor. But when the left says there is no God, look what happens. children grow up thinking they are big banged into existence for no reason at all, having apes for ancestors with no distinction to be made between an animal and a man. If a child knows he is created in the image of God, he may want to read up on God and find out how he should act, which brings us to the Ten Commandments, one of which is “Thou shalt not steal.” Whether it is a stranger stealing your bike or the government stealing your wages to “redistribute the wealth,” it is still stealing.
Here is a link to a site from which the rest of this post is excerpted. See what you think.
https://defendchristians.org/commentary/why-the-bible-opposes-socialism/
Socialism is an attack on the individual and his God-given freedom, gifts and responsibilities. It undermines and attacks the family. Ultimately, it is a denial of God and his Law. It makes the state into god, a fierce Leviathan, a beast that devours.
Abraham Kuyper put it this way: “Whoever will allow for society to be absorbed by the state carries the incense for the deification of the state. He would put the state in the place of God and allow the free society ordained by God to be destroyed…”
In his own inimitable way Winston Churchill sums it up nicely. “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent value is the equal sharing of misery.”
“Socialism is an attack on the individual and his God-given freedom, gifts and responsibilities. It undermines and attacks the family. Ultimately, it is a denial of God and his Law.”
Apparently you haven’t read the Bible. At least not the part about what happened when the Disciples got the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:44
Acts 2:44English Standard Version (ESV)
And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
Exactly. All who BELIEVED …
Did the government tell the believers to hold all things in common? Or did they just do it because they were inhabited by the Holy Spirit and so gave freely to all believers among themselves?
So apparently you don’t believe. If you did, you’d have no problem with having everything in common. Apparently it’s what God wants.
Dienne,
I have written so many posts upholding my belief in God. My arguments always come from the perspective of a Christian in a world surrounded by humanists who actually believe we came from a single celled creature that was big banged into existence even though there is no proof for this theory at all.
There are no transitional forms in the fossil record. There is no evidence for any species ever evolving into another species. Darwin simply took his varying Finch beaks and extrapolated the concept to the origin of life as a possible “theory.” The problem is now that so much time has passed and so many textbooks have been written with this theory pronounced as fact that people actually believe evolution answers the questions of “Who are we? and How did we get here?”
Every supposed missing link that scientists “discover” has turned out to be a fraud from Piltdown Man (human skull attached to an orangutan jaw) to Nebraska Man (tooth of a wild pig) to Lucy (scattered bones miles apart gathered and sawed off and constructed feet to make it look like an ape who walked upright) but these things were sold as “Missing Link Found” by the New York Times and printed in books for decades before the truth was ascertained.
But there is never a big “Mea Culpa” from the NYT or any publisher about printing fraudulent stuff without gong back to the original bones and really looking at them. “Scholars” wrote over 500 papers about Piltdown Man during the 41 years that the skull was locked away in a vault and the fraud was perpetuated. That’s two generations of children being told we came from apes. Then a scientist demanded to see the original and not just the models which get shipped around to museums and universities and don’t you know it turned out to be a blatant fraud.
Nebraska Man is even more egregious because they only found a tooth. From that tooth an artist drew an ape like man walking upright along with his wife in textbooks. Then a scientist (not a Christian) studies the tooth carefully and discovers it is nothing more than the tooth of a pig. This is the evidence we have for transitional forms of man.
So yes, I am a believer, but I acknowledge that most of the world is filled with people who are not. Therefore God’s desire that we all share with one another inevitably breaks down because the unbelievers don’t take that suggestion very seriously.
When Christ and His disciples were alive, was the Roman government protecting them or persecuting them? Was the Sanhedrin protecting them or persecuting them? Did Jesus heal the blind man on the Sabbath in direct opposition to Jewish law? He said was following the will of God, the Father, in heaven. Jesus led a perfect sinless life. He was an example of how we should love each other and share. However, he was also an example of someone who told the truth even when it was politically incorrect, such as calling the Jewish leaders a brood of vipers.
To say that God wants us to “have everything in common” now in 2016 America because his disciples did this is not logical. Socialism is a system based on Darwin’s rejection of God. It is a system that denies man as created in the image of God because you cannot treat people as animals if you acknowledge God created them. The United Nations, Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, Ted Turner, George Soros, and the Common Core all tout the supremacy of the environment over man. The socialist utopian dream is for man to fit neatly into a technocratic world where all resources are doled out equally to just the right amount of people that the environment can easily support. They don’t care if there are 7 billion people living today and each one of them has the God given right to exist, create, produce and live to their highest potential. Socialism will always lead to bloodshed and the elimination of what they deem “useless eaters.”
You can’t have a system based on carbon credits and environmental concerns because someone in charge will have to decide who “deserves” the credits and who doesn’t. The state always wants to perpetuate itself and justify itself. If it limits access to life giving resources and make us beg to divide them equally, it has a job to do. It is in the interest of the state that people do not believe in God and want to share everything actually. If we all just get along and share everything ourselves, who needs the state?
That is exactly what is going on right now with Black Lives Matter and the media distortion designed to pit people against each other. If the state can foment a ruckus, then people will call for protection, the state can run in and double down with repression and surveillance and people accept it as the cost for peace. Meanwhile the whole thing was manufactured by the state to make you think you can’t get along with your neighbor.
Matthew 22:36-40English Standard Version (ESV)
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Amen.
You have just been dying to have another argument about evolution, haven’t you.
Yes, since the theory of evolution has had a profoundly negative effect on man’s view of himself in the universe, I do think it is important to question its scientific basis in public dialogue whenever possible. Since Darwin published his book of speculation on origins, God is no longer necessary to account for either the existence of this universe or the emergence of our species from prehistoric animals. Darwinian evolution has led to a collapse of all traditional values, because both objective meaning and spiritual purpose has vanished with the expulsion of God.
If man was big banged into existence for no reason at all, then there is no basis for a concept of logic, truth, or morality. If our brains just randomly developed, then how can they be trusted to form logical arguments? When there is no moral law giver, there is no objective moral law, so how can there be any concept of morality? If survival of the fittest is the natural law which guides our actions, then man can feel free to eat his neighbor’s dog with impunity. There is no objective truth or moral law to appeal to in order to label an action wrong or evil or even selfish or disgusting. It is simply the “law of the jungle” so to speak.
So, yes, I do take the time to rebuke the theory of evolution when I can so that maybe someone out there that is actually open minded and curious and not so hateful towards God that he or she might be inspired to investigate how weak the “scientific” evidence for evolution really is.
Dawn, I won’t comment on anything else, but you don’t seem to understand the means and goals of socialism, as few people do (who are not socialists themselves.)
Socialism is when workers own the means of production and distribution. It is economic democracy. It is people controlling their own lives, including within the workplace, rather than managers and CEOs.
I fail to see how that would be against the idea of “God” or “the individual.” It is rather against a minority of people owning most of the wealth and power, at the expense of all others.
I guess I understand it all now Dawn . Having Graduated with a degree in Anthropology in 1973. I would beg to differ with you on the fossil record . Transitional forms abound what there is not is scientist who will draw a straight line through those forms. He does not need to . Except to sell books . But what we have far more than teeth . From jaws to skull fragments to femurs… To the newly broken genetic code
and what we have learned about genetic science .
But you are entitled to your beliefs . Thank God Jefferson had the wisdom to see that everyone was entitled to their own beliefs and the only way to preserve freedom of religion, was with freedom from religion . That would be found in the” Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom “Written by Jefferson submitted to the Virginia legislature by Madison in 1786 and passed in 1787. Not in as much detail in the constitution but everyone who voted on that document knew exactly what Jefferson and Madison meant.
So where we will part ways is when one of my Tax dollars goes to support your views . Unfortunately that is happening it must end.
It is also a prime reason for the attack on our public schools . Vouchers are used to teach children beliefs that are not mine .
I will support your right to hold what ever belief you have as long as you support my right to not support your beliefs with my Tax dollars.
For as Jefferson said:
“History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes. ” .
My tax dollars go to public schools which teach evolution which I do not have enough faith to believe in. I just wish evolution were discussed in classrooms as a the theory that it is and not presented as a fact. It needs to be revisited. People are afraid to do this. If Darwin’s theory is so airtight, then expose it to the scientific scrutiny it deserves. Science is based on evidence, not conjecture. Because people are so determined not to live in a world created by God that they give Darwin a pass on his unscientific theory. I do agree that vouchers is a terrible idea.
I am curious as to why you think discoveries in genetics prove evolution when actually they point more clearly to our intelligent, sovereign Creator. Here is a famous geneticist who argues that humans are not getting better but rather worse due to mutations. When an ex-atheist becomes a geneticist, reviews the top-down evolutionary deleterious observations, and becomes a straight young earth creationist because of the data, I can’t fault him for it. The data is what it is; and, it is highly logical to side with data.
“I am curious as to why you think discoveries in genetics prove evolution when actually they point more clearly to our intelligent, sovereign Creator.”
There is also the possibility that our Creator is a moron, or a bumptious ass, or midway through a 13-billion-year nap.
Proverbs 1:22
“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
It must be difficult to be so Christ-like, Dawn. How do you find the strength to suffer the wisecracks of fools in the flame wars you start?
Dawn: what do you think a scientific theory is, here is an explanation of scientific theory:
“Every scientific theory starts as a hypothesis. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a hypothesis is an idea that hasn’t been proven yet. If enough evidence accumulates to support a hypothesis, it moves to the next step — known as a theory — in the scientific method and becomes accepted as a valid explanation of a phenomenon.
Tanner further explained that a scientific theory is the framework for observations and facts. Theories may change, or the way that they are interpreted may change, but the facts themselves don’t change. Tanner likens theories to a basket in which scientists keep facts and observations that they find. The shape of that basket may change as the scientists learn more and include more facts. “For example, we have ample evidence of traits in populations becoming more or less common over time (evolution), so evolution is a fact but the overarching theories about evolution, the way that we think all of the facts go together might change as new observations of evolution are made,”
There are piratically zero submissions to scientific journals for pier review that question the frame work of the theory of evolution . They may challenge certain hypothesis with in the in that theory . Education should be based on science. Till you change that, which the enemies of Public education are trying very hard to do . You will pay taxes to teach science and I will not pay taxes to teach religion .
By the way who does God talk to, the Pope,the Grand Rebbe or perhaps Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ruler of ISIS, their followers all believe these men have a special relationship with god. Don’t know much about eastern religions so I am a little confused about what we should teach if not science. .
al-Baghdadi was chosen to make a point not to insult Muslims.
Joel,
Yes be very careful not to insult the Muslims, but Christians….eh, who cares? You can mock us all you want. Is that how that goes? Anyway, there have always been mockers and scoffers so you are not alone.
Back to Darwin….I know what a scientific theory is and so did Darwin. That is why he said in his book, ‘On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life’ that if in the future no transitional forms were found in the fossil record his theory would be called into question. He also said if something in natural life was discovered that was so complex that it could not possibly be the result of evolution that would void his theory as well. He had doubts and he titled a whole chapter with that heading: Doubts. Do you accept that DNA consists of a complex code? Don’t we need a coder to invent the complex code? They are developing a computer right now that is going to simulate DNA folding which takes a second in our body but will take a year for the computer to simulate all of the moves required to accomplish it. Our bodies are magnificently designed.
Darwin’s theory is hypothetical which makes him a philosopher, not a scientist. Yes, he observed the differences in the size and shape of Finch beaks and noticed they could be adapted through natural selection to different conditions found in nature. That is a fact. No one is arguing that natural selection does not occur within a species. But to extrapolate that because a family of Finches can change the shape of their beaks over time to survive means that a single celled creature can slowly develop into all of the various creatures populating this earth at this time is pure speculation with not one shred of evidence to back it up. By that I mean, scientists have been trying to get one single celled bacteria to add another cell, become something else for a very long time and they have had zero success. It is still bacteria. Scientists have tried to replicate the “primordial soup” that supposedly existed in order to provide the conditions for life to spontaneously occur. They can’t do it.
Ed Detective,
You say, Socialism is when workers own the means of production and distribution. It is economic democracy. It is people controlling their own lives, including within the workplace, rather than managers and CEOs.
So-called employee-owned companies are also capitalist enterprises. They operate to make a profit and are subject to all the laws of the capitalist market. They must meet competition on the national and global arena through the capitalist methods of cost-cutting and downsizing.
Even the claim that workers are the genuine owners of United Airlines and other “employee-owned” companies is false. It is the banks and financiers who funded the deal who are the real owners.
I do not think what we have operating in the U.S. right now is pure capitalism. The biggest corporations own most of our so called “elected” politicians. They dump money on elections and lobbyists and participate in a revolving door method of sending Coca-Cola executives to work at the CDC to dampen the soda industry killing message that sugary drinks cause diabetes. These are cheaters. Stop the cheating. Strengthen the anti-monopoly laws and bar industry execs and tax exempt foundations execs from holding public agency positions and dictating policies that benefit their own profits. Every state should also have a so called “Death Tax.” The estate tax raises revenue for public services that build a stronger economy, protects against extreme levels of income inequality, and ensures that the wealthy cannot avoid paying taxes on certain forms of wealth. There are many things we can do to improve our economy for the vast majority of our population — becoming socialist is not one of them.
I stick to my guns. Socialism is socialism is communism. It does not allow God given creativity and ambition to grow. It is a secular system which bows down to Darwin and will result in bloodshed. Why do you think the UK just voted to leave the EU? Giving away sovereignty is never a good idea. The EU and the UN are socialist entities which gather up peoples taxes in exchange for the ephemeral promise of peace and the inevitable shower of regulations and agendas (Agenda 2030 having 17 goals unanimously adopted by 193 UN member states.) The idea that the environment is supreme over humans who God created in his image is a dangerous idea. Think about what that really means carried to its logical conclusion. Ted Turner supports the UN and puts it bluntly:
June 7, 2012, Media mogul and population control advocate Ted Turner recently told citizen journalists he would like to reduce the world’s population by five billion people, asking parents to be a “one child family…for 100 years.”
I will simply post what Gary Kasparov, the greatest mind that chess has ever known, has to say about socialism in response to so many Americans feeling the Bern.
“I’m enjoying the irony of American Sanders supporters lecturing me, a former Soviet citizen, on the glories of Socialism and what it really means! Socialism sounds great in speech soundbites and on Facebook, but please keep it there. In practice, it corrodes not only the economy but the human spirit itself, and the ambition and achievement that made modern capitalism possible and brought billions of people out of poverty. Talking about Socialism is a huge luxury, a luxury that was paid for by the successes of capitalism. Income inequality is a huge problem, absolutely. But the idea that the solution is more government, more regulation, more debt, and less risk is dangerously absurd.
Yes, please take Scandinavia as an example! Implementing some socialistic elements AFTER becoming a wealthy capitalist economy only works as long as you don’t choke off what made you wealthy to begin with in the process. Again, it’s a luxury item that shouldn’t be confused with what is really doing the work, as many do. And do not forget that nearly all of the countless 20th –century innovations and industries that made the rest of the developed world so efficient and comfortable came from America, and it wasn’t a coincidence. As long as Europe had America taking risks, investing ambitiously, and yes, being “unequal,” it had the luxury of benefiting from the results without making the same sacrifices. Who will be America’s America?”