Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont shared his year-end thoughts along with his hopes for the future. As the first year of Trump’s second term winds down, it’s hard to believe that the dreams he describes can come true. Every day brings a new blow to the environment, to our health care, to our schools, to our children, to the rule of law, to our allies, to our national sense of purpose.
Yet we will persist. We have no other choice.
Sisters and Brothers –
As we come to the end of a very difficult year, I want to wish everyone a very happy holiday season, a wonderful new year and thank you all for the support you have given our progressive movement.
Let me take this opportunity to share some end-of-the-year thoughts with you.
As I reflect on the moment in which we’re living, what is most disturbing to me is not just that a handful of multi-billionaires control our economic life, our political life, and our media. That’s bad, and extremely dangerous. But, what is even worse is the degree to which these Oligarchs, through their wealth and power, have created an environment that limits our imaginations and our expectations as to what we deserve as human beings.
It really is quite amazing.
We live in the wealthiest country in the history of the world and, yet, we are asked to accept as “normal” the reality that tens of millions of Americans struggle every day to afford the basic necessities of life – food, housing, health care or education.
We live in a “democracy,” but we are told that it is legal and proper for one man, the wealthiest person on earth, to spend $270 million in campaign contributions to help elect a president who then provides huge tax breaks and other benefits to the very rich.
We live in a nation whose Declaration of Independence in 1776 boldly proclaimed “that all men are created equal” while, today, the gap between the rich and poor is wider than ever and the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 93%.
We live under a criminal justice system which punishes people for being poor, but rewards fossil fuel tycoons whose carbon emissions are wreaking havoc on the lives of billions of people and posing an existential threat to the planet.
As we enter the new year, our job is clear. We don’t have to accept the Oligarchs’ determination as to what is possible and what is not. We must think big, not small. We must reject status quo politics and economics. We must imagine, and fight for, a world very different than the one in which we now live. We must demand and create a world of economic, social, racial and environmental justice.
Yes. We no longer have to be the only major country on earth that does not guarantee health care for all as a human right. The function of healthcare must not be to make the insurance companies and drug companies even richer. We CAN create a high quality cost-effective health care system that focuses on disease prevention, extends our life expectancy and is publicly funded. This is not a radical idea.
Yes. In a highly competitive global economy we CAN have the best public educational system in the world from child care to graduate school. As a nation, we must respect the importance of education and adequately compensate educators for the important work they do. We must strengthen and improve our primary and secondary educational systems and make child care and public colleges and universities tuition free. This is not a radical idea.
Yes. We CAN end the housing crisis and the reality that 800,000 Americans are homeless and millions spend half of their incomes to put a roof over their heads. We must build millions of units of low-income and affordable housing and, in the process, create many good paying union construction jobs. This is not a radical idea.
YES. With effective regulation we CAN utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics to improve the lives of all, not just the billionaires who own that technology. As worker- productivity increases we can raise wages, improve working conditions and reduce the work week. Making sure that AI and robotics benefit all of society and not the wealthy few is not a radical idea.
YES. We CAN address the outrageous level of income and wealth inequality that we are now experiencing. While we can respect talented businesspeople and entrepreneurial skills, we do not have to accept the outrageous level of greed and vulgarity that the billionaire class too often exhibits. It is beyond absurd that we have a tax system in which the richest people in this country often pay an effective tax rate that is lower than truck drivers or nurses. Demanding that the 1% and large corporations start paying their fair share of taxes is not a radical idea.
At a time when we live in a dangerous and unprecedented moment in American history, and part of a rapidly changing world, it is absolutely imperative that we boldly respond to the crises that we face. This is not the time for timidity. Our agenda must be fearless and straightforward. Nothing less than the preservation of democracy, the well-being of the planet and the future of humanity is a stake.
As we enter the new year, let us go forward together.
In Solidarity.
Bernie
IN THAT SPIRIT, dear friends, Happy New Year!
Don’t stop believing in the power of conscience and collective action.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
🍾🍾🍾🍾🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Most of the “happiest countries in the world” are from Scandinavia where there is a robust capitalist economy that is tempered by democratic socialism. In these countries there are many that struggle to pay their bills, but they know that the state has services that will help them with their struggle. They will not go bankrupt over medical debt. If their child intends to go to college, the state will pay the tuition. Young parents do not have to worry about child care when they return to work because the state offers a system of quality daycare centers for their child. These countries still have crime and skinheads that despise immigrants and people of color, but the social safety nets are in place to ensure that everyone has access to a minimal level of care.
According to AI “McDonald’s employees in Denmark earn significantly more and receive far better benefits (around $22/hour, 6 weeks paid vacation, pension, etc.) due to strong unions and collective bargaining, compared to the U.S., where wages are lower (often minimum wage or slightly above, around $11-$15/hour for many crew members.” In Nordic countries the government actively ensures that companies are socially responsible and fair to employees while in the US the “magic market” is supposed to bring us into economy balance. Unfortunately, the market works for corporations, not the people, and our extreme income inequality is the result of a rigged market we have been living under since the Reagan administration. An increasing number of Americans cannot keep pace with the cost of living. Most of our people have fallen behind economically, and now the rich and powerful want to take away our rights as well. We are finally realizing that Sanders was right all along and is not the “crackpot” that the radical right and some corporate democrats claim.
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Bernie is the best, we need an army of Bernies to get us to universal health care and tuition-free university education. It’s possible, it can be done as illustrated in most of the Western European countries. Thank goodness for Medicare which does cover vision care but not eyeglasses. It covered my two cataract surgeries which otherwise would have cost thousands of dollars instead of the minimal co-pay. Whom do we have to thank for Medicare? Thank you LBJ, you did some good along with some horrific bad actions in Vietnam.
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Bernie Sanders recently said this: …securing the U.S. border “ain’t that hard to do,” and declared that “Trump did a better job. “I don’t like Trump, you know, but we should have a secure border Biden didn’t do it.”
A New Year’s resolution for Diane Ravitch: have the intellectual integrity to disclose to your readers important information that does not automatically advance your preferred left-wing narratives. A good start would be commenting on the huge scandals in public assistance in Minnesota under the leadership of Tim Walz. So far not a peep here – imagine if a non-left wing politician had Walz’s awful record of oversight. This blog would have ten postings every week about it. Whataboutisms not allowed.
https://komonews.com/news/nation-world/sanders-breaks-with-democrats-praises-trumps-border-policy-on-podcast-donald-trump-joe-biden-vermont-bernie-2020-campaign-security-the-tim-dillon-show-social-media
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Oh, dear. I wish it were true that we could build all the necessary housing – in the places where people can live and have productive lives. But it is not likely, Diane. For one thing, we need to be aware of the limits to growth – of human population, for starters, and then the limits of water, and electricity, and power lines, roads, trash and sewage treatment. . . If you want to study up on this, let me know. Best wishes for a happy new year, Martha Ture Mt. Tamalpais Photographyhttps://mttamalpaisphotos.com The greatest joy in the world is in restoring the earth.
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