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the-pi-guy said:
Which is exactly why I put socialist in quotes in the above. Many people claim that Bernie's "socialism" will fail, because look at Russia. It didn't go so well for them. Modern Europe's "socialism" (Social Democracy) is very different from the (actual) socialism that was taking place in the Soviet Union. |
That is because Bernie calls it "Democratic Socialism" which is actually socialism, and something entirely different from "Social Democracy." Furthermore, historically Bernie was a real socialist whose end goals were indeed the public ownership of the means of production. This was true until the fall of the Soviet Union, in which he changed his views a little bit. Now he has just tempered his policies to Social Democratic ones because he is trying to be pragmatic in the context of the American system. Democratic Socialism is what is present in Venezuela, and it has the same faults as Soviet-style top-down socialism.
Furthermore, like Trump - Bernie never says how he is going to do the things he claims he'll do. His promises are just like Trump's - empty.
There is something wrong when Bernie Sanders cites the large welfare states of Nordic countries, but ignores the free-market principles these countries espouse much more deeply than the U.S. There is even more wrong when he (like Trump) espouses protectionism. You can't represent a Nordic country as the model of what the U.S should be, and then at the same time ignore all the ways their economies are more capitalistic/laissez-faire than the U.S'.
