Race to the Bottom

With the latest polls showing US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders leading rival Hillary Clinton only weeks before the first two primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire, many Americans are contemplating the real possibility of having a socialist president in the White House. But even if Sanders wins the election, the United States will not have a socialist president. Why not? Because Sanders is not a socialist.

Sanders has often stated that he is a “democratic socialist” and, last November, he defined that term for the American people. Shortly afterwards, Forbes Magazine published an article that stated, “What he’s talking about, whatever the heck it is, isn’t socialism of any type or form.” And, for once, Forbes was right. Sanders is not a socialist in any shape or form. At least not according to the content of his public statements and campaign platform. But if Sanders is not a socialist, then what is he? He is a social democrat; which is radically different from being a democratic socialist.

Here it is, stated as lucidly as it will ever be stated in our contemporary political discourse, in terms that even the weakest American minds ought to comprehend.

So print out a copy and keep it in your supper jacket so you can pull it out during the cocktail hour and shove it in the face of the next jackass who tells you Bernie is a dirty, rotten socialist.

What we now know, aside from the obvious fact that he is not a socialist, is that Bernie is our only real choice.  Don't expect a miracle even if he wins--which I doubt he will.  I hope he will, but I have little faith at this point.

As 2016 drags on from here to November, understand that our choices are between a social democrat or an oligarch on one side, and whichever unrepentant fascist GOP voters settle for on the other.

In other words, not much has changed since the last time we did this, with the possible oddity that Romney was more idiot than fascist, and perhaps more like a Clinton than even Hillary.


TS