Jumpin said:
HylianSwordsman said:
Bernie isn't a capitalist, he's a market socialist economically, a democratic socialist politically, and a reform socialist in strategy. His Political Revolution that he always talks about is his answer to the criticisms of revolutionary socialists that you can't reform the system. He believes that abolition through revolution isn't necessary if there's a political revolution that renews the people's sense of civic duty and interest in public action, which he hopes will create the appetite for the fundamental reforms he proposes that would gradually turn us into a market socialist system. I think his strategy will work if we give it a chance. In the short term though, the main visible difference between him and Warren will be limited to rhetoric. But the signs are on the horizon. I mean have you seen his Green New Deal? Not just 100% renewable, but 100% publicly owned power. He's literally advocating seizing the means of electricity production. He'll do this with healthcare and other sectors of the economy as well. Just because he still supports markets doesn't make him not a socialist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism#Reform_versus_revolution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_socialism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_socialism
People accuse Bernie of being a simple social democrat, but here's a quote from the market socialism article that explains things a bit:
"while social democracy aims to achieve greater economic stability and equality through policy measures such as taxes, subsidies and social welfare programs, market socialism aims to achieve similar goals through changing patterns of enterprise ownership and management"
Hence why publicly owned power is so important to Bernie, as is getting rid of private insurance.
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"Market socialism is a type of economic system involving the public, cooperative or social ownership of the means of production in the framework of a market economy. " - from your link. So where does Bernie say he wants to implement this? This would, in effect, abolish the bourgeoisie ownership of the means of production in favour of the proletariat.
Giving more authority to the government is not socialism. It simply bolsters the bureaucracy. This can sometimes benefit the people (but so can tyranny), it can also oppress them since it is, in effect, a hierarchy.
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In his Green New Deal, like I said. And all over the campaign trail when talking about healthcare. He does in fact want to abolish the bourgeoisie ownership of the means of electricity production, and of healthcare access. Like I said, he's a reform socialist, so he doesn't want to go straight to an actually socialist healthcare system like the UK's NHS, but he does like it, and if he were immortal and president forever, would eventually try to drum up political support for an NHS-like system. He just doesn't campaign on it, because his political strategy for winning is reformism, so advocating for an immediate revolutionary transition to full on socialism isn't his style because he doesn't think it'll work. Just as anyone who read between the lines knew that Trump was a hard-right authoritarian wannabe dictator, it's also fairly obvious that what Bernie is campaigning on isn't the farthest left he's willing to go, it's just his campaign strategy. He offers more than anyone else, so as to start from a good bargaining position, unlike Dems that start from a compromise and end up with a worse compromise, and then when he gets what he wants, he starts to push for more. He's a reformist socialist.
