Lash
 
  1  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 09:31 am
@revelette1,
Bernie’s base was pissed in 2016 because we wanted him to speak out about the media blackout against him and the DNC cheating.

Speaking the truth isn’t playing the victim.
0 Replies
 
edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 09:33 am
It's just part of the belittle Bernie campaign that can't get him on issues.
revelette1
 
  2  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 09:35 am
@edgarblythe,
I actually won't mind if Bernie is president. I said it before and I meant it.
hightor
 
  4  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 09:48 am
@revelette1,
Quote:
I actually won't mind if Bernie is president.

I'll mind if he can't get anything done. Obama was a moderate and after the '10 elections he was boxed in and prevented from passing legislation. If Moscow Mitch is still running the Senate, the Sanders presidency won't fare any better. I sure don't see him compromising! We might regain some our international standing however.
edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 09:58 am
@hightor,
What sense does it make to elect Biden or Harris or even Warren? They just intend to put us back where we were before the 2016 election, which is truly doing nothing.
Lash
 
  1  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 10:54 am
“40 killed at Kent State.”
“I’m the first year a Senate ever knew.”

Media focused on Biden’s “imagine Obama assassinated,” which was semi-coherent albeit bizarre. The rest of what he said is gibberish.

These aren’t “gaffes.”
————————
A post about Biden. His situation has gone from irritating to sad. The DNC and Mrs. Biden are guilty of decency malpractice.
0 Replies
 
MontereyJack
 
  3  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 11:19 am
@edgarblythe,
The country was actually in pretty good shape in 2016 before trump started destroying it.
0 Replies
 
hightor
 
  2  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 11:29 am
@edgarblythe,
If he's elected in a landslide and McConnell is dethroned he might have a chance at enacting parts of his program. At this stage of the race, I don't see a socialist landslide and the GOP still looks as if it might hold the Senate. In that case someone acting more like a traditional Democrat might be able to work across the aisle without being seen as a traitor by supporters, that's all. It may become more clear when we can look at the results of the primaries — nothing but speculation now.
georgeob1
 
  -2  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 11:38 am
@hightor,
hightor wrote:

Quote:
The underlying point is that efforts to give the government exclusive control of the management of social and economic issues, themselves end up in changing the character of the government - and in very undesirable ways.

Except that no one is campaigning to give the government exclusive control of the management of social and economic issues.
Quote:
When government controls everything the stakes for power become very high indeed, usually resulting in authoritarian tyranny and pervasive corruption.

You mean as in the Scandinavian countries? See, it's possible to introduce "socialist" measures without the countries turning into the sorts of dictatorships you seem to fear so much.


My point above is that the degradation of public freedom and the integrity of government is reduced in rough proportion to the degree such measures are enacted. Both are lasting evils that continuingly erode the fabric of governments practicing them.

You are entirely incorrect in your reference to the Scandinavian Countries (Denmark, Norway and Sweden). All enjoy intensely free market capitalist systems, with relatively light regulatory burdens (compared to Germany & France), and all are ranked very high in international rankings of countries for ease of doing business. None of these countries has a government-mandated minimum wage. All practice intense local control of most social services, including health and welfare systems, and all provide educational vouchers to parents who are completely free to choose as they wish among the (mostly private) schools for their children's education.

In the 1980 and 1990s the Scandinavian Countries did indeed experiment with some elements of 'Democratic Socialism' (as it is called in Europe) but rather decisively abandoned it starting about 22 years ago due the enervating effects on economic activity and social responsibility that quickly resulted.

Today's economic and educational policies in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden much more closely resemble those of Republicans here than those of our increasingly lunatic Democrats.
Walter Hinteler
 
  2  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 11:52 am
@georgeob1,
georgeob1 wrote:
You are entirely incorrect in your reference to the Scandinavian Countries (Denmark, Norway and Sweden). All enjoy intensely free market capitalist systems, with relatively light regulatory burdens (compared to Germany & France), and all ranked very high in international ranking of countries for ease of doing business. None of these countries has a government-mandated minimum wage.
Denmark and Sweden are EU-countries, like Germany and France ... with exactly the same free market system like Norway (the latter due to the membership of the European Economic Area.

In the Scandinavian countries, the unions negotiate with employer groups to set wages, working hours and working conditions - like elsewhere, but here it includes the minimum wages as well.
This will go on as long as it works. At the first sign that it isn’t working, the respective governments will introduce legislation.
georgeob1
 
  -2  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 11:57 am
@Walter Hinteler,
"At the first sign...." !! You must be joking.

How free are economic markets in France , where major corporations are required to have government representations on their governing boards?

Union established minimum wages apply only to the corporations with such union representation, and then only to the traded or job functions specified. Government established minimum wages generally apply to all employment.
Olivier5
 
  2  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 12:05 pm
@georgeob1,
Quote:
France , where major corporations are required to have government representations on their governing boards? 

That's pure fabrication.
0 Replies
 
Walter Hinteler
 
  2  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 12:08 pm
@georgeob1,
georgeob1 wrote:
In the 1980 and 1990s the Scandinavian Countries did indeed experiment with some elements of 'Democratic Socialism' (as it is called in Europe) but rather decisively abandoned it starting about 22 years ago due the enervating effects on economic activity and social responsibility that quickly resulted.
I'm not sure, why you refer here tp "Democratic Socialism" since that just distinguishes democratic socialists (social democratic, socialist and communist groups and parties) from Marxist–Leninists.

In Sweden, center-right government did take office in 1976, with Social Democrats in opposition for the first time in 44 years.
Through the 1940s and until 1972, all Danish governments were formed by (rarely with) the Social Democrats.
In Norway, the Arbeiderpartiet ("Labour Party") has been the largest party in Parliament ever since the election of 1927 up to the recent 2013 election.
0 Replies
 
Walter Hinteler
 
  2  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 12:09 pm
@georgeob1,
georgeob1 wrote:
Union established minimum wages apply only to the corporations with such union representation, and then only to the traded or job functions specified. Government established minimum wages generally apply to all employment.
We don't have this US-American system here in Europe - collective labour agreements are universally valid.
0 Replies
 
edgarblythe
 
  2  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 12:21 pm
@hightor,
You people seem to say, if we can't get instant results with Sanders there's no use trying. The ones who say we were in pretty good shape in 2016 must live lives of privilege. The whole country's government, all three branches plus so many states were overwhelmed by the right-wing. All Trump did was give voice and action to the crazies already in charge.
hightor
 
  2  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 12:24 pm
@georgeob1,
Quote:
You are entirely incorrect in your reference to the Scandinavian Countries (Denmark, Norway and Sweden).

As I expected, you missed my point. Ever hear of "irony"? This is what you said:
Quote:
When government controls everything the stakes for power become very high indeed, usually resulting in authoritarian tyranny and pervasive corruption.

I brought up the Scandinavian countries precisely because they don't fit your model of "socialism". And none of the Democrats running for president are suggesting anything like the "authoritarian tyranny" you seem to fear so much. The government is not going to "control everything" — it's lucky if it can control anything, and pervasive corruption already exists in the absence of socialism so why would it get worse if we had universal healthcare or regulations on carbon pollution?

0 Replies
 
hightor
 
  2  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 12:43 pm
@edgarblythe,
Quote:
You people seem to say, if we can't get instant results with Sanders there's no use trying.

No, I'm saying that Sanders is running on a platform which seems to be promising short term results and I don't see how he can possibly implement those changes.
Quote:
The whole country's government, all three branches plus so many states were overwhelmed by the right-wing.

That's because USAmericans are basically rather conservative and all the right has to do is stoke popular fears and the people will vote for the nearest demagogue they can find. That's why they sandbagged Obama. They want government to look bad. They want government to fail. And, as has been shown again and again, they have the power to achieve these ends. They win elections. Should a Democrat win high office they'll gum up the works for one or even two terms so that the administration looks halting and ineffective and our wonderful electorate will put the right back in power.
Quote:
The ones who say we were in pretty good shape in 2016 must live lives of privilege.

Not necessarily. We had a president who would at least take the lives of the underclass seriously. We had liberals nominated for judicial slots. We weren't trying use the world economy as a bargaining chip. We had regulations in place to protect us against the worst practices of profit-driven corporations.
Quote:
All Trump did was give voice and action to the crazies already in charge.

And that's unimportant?
blatham
 
  1  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 04:45 pm
@hightor,
Edgar wrote
Quote:
The whole country's government, all three branches plus so many states were overwhelmed by the right-wing.
There's obvious truth to that assertion/observation. But I wish I saw some evidence that Edgar and Lash have attended to the serious studies on how this has come about. It really isn't nearly adequate, insightful or helpful to merely insist that "the Dems failed to support progressive values". And when you get causation wrong, your prescriptions for resolution aren't going to make the grade.

blatham
 
  3  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 04:49 pm
Quote:
In the summer of 2016, Mick Mulvaney promised an experiment of sorts to resolve just what had motivated the Republican Party’s fanatical opposition to Barack Obama. Mulvaney proposed that the answer was not partisanship or racism, but instead principled adherence to the Constitution. The test would come when the president — a man Mulvaney acknowledged to have dangerous instincts and contempt for governing norms — was a Republican.

“We’ve been fighting against an imperial presidency for five and a half years,” he said in June 2016, after Trump had captured the nomination. “Every time we go to the floor and push back against an overreaching president, we get accused of being partisan at best and racist at worst. When we do it against a Republican president, maybe people will see that it was a principled objection in the first place. So we actually welcome that opportunity. It might actually be fun, being a strict-constitutionalist congressman doing battle with a non-strict-constitutionalist Republican president.”

The result of Mulvaney’s experiment could not be more clear. Under Trump, the entire party has abandoned its putative constitutional scruples. Indeed, Mulvaney himself has gone to work for the president whose authoritarian tendencies he once loathed and sat silently by as Trump has abused his power to lash out against his enemies and enrich himself and his family...
Chait - NYMag
0 Replies
 
Lash
 
  1  
Reply Sun 25 Aug, 2019 06:37 pm
I just want to say that I thought Bernie would be taking his fight to Mitch McConnell’s backyard after Bernie was elected.

He’s been supporting strikers, sharing his people-centric policies, and calling out Mitch and his band of Republican sell-outs all over Kentucky for a couple of days now. The crowd was enormous. No other politician brings them out in the fields, to the arenas, and in the streets like Bernie—an old Jewish man with a thick Brooklyn accent, and a grouchy stabbing finger, who says the same thing he’s been saying for the past 30 years everywhere he goes.

No moss on Bernie.

I don’t know anyone comparable to Bernie Sanders.
0 Replies
 
 

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