Recently, I wrote a post about how Bernie Sander's Venezuela Socialism quote is fake. When Bernie supposedly said that the American dream is more likely to take place in Venezuela than here, it was taken as evidence of how wrong Sander's Socialism is (given the current Venezuelan disaster).
It turns out that Sander's didn't say the quote, and I'm not sure he even would have. It's hard to tell since Bernie frequently defines socialism by the outcome he expects it to produce.
Here's how Bernie defines socialism:
-Democratic socialism means that our government does everything it can to create a full employment economy.
-Democratic socialism means that we must reform a political system that is corrupt, that we must create an economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy.
-When I talk about democratic socialist, I'm not looking at Venezuela. I'm not looking at Cuba. I'm looking at countries like Denmark and Sweden.
-Democratic socialism means, that in a democratic, civilized society, the wealthiest people and the largest corporations must pay their fair share of taxes.
-To me, democratic socialism means democracy. It means creating a government that represents all of us, not just the wealthiest people in the country.
-My view of democratic socialism builds on the success of many other countries around the world that have done a far better job than we have in protecting the needs of their working families, their elderly citizens, the children, the sick and the poor.
-All that socialism means to me, to be very frank with you, is democracy with a small 'd.' I believe in democracy, and by democracy, I mean that, to as great an extent as possible, human beings have the right to control their own lives. And that means that you cannot separate the political structure from the economic structure.
To Bernie Sanders, Socialism means: an economy that works for all, a full employment economy, fair taxes, government representing all of us, Denmark and Sweden, protecting working families, elderly citizens, children, sick, and poor, democracy (with a small d), and of course equality.-I am a socialist; of course I am a socialist. To hold a vision that society can be fundamentally different, to believe that all people can be equal - that is not a new idea.
Literally nobody is against these things. This strikes me as the usual political nonsense that I don't think reflects Bernie's usual approach to politics.
I tracked down one quote that I think is the most important quote Bernie has about his brand of Socialism (if he means it).
“I don’t believe government should own the means of production, but I do believe that the middle class and the working families who produce the wealth of America deserve a fair deal,”To many this is not socialism. For economists and older people especially, socialism is defined by government ownership of the means of production. It sucks that Bernie has been calling himself Socialist for so long that he couldn't credibly detach himself from the label while running for president (if he tried). He could have avoided much of the stigma associated with the word.
I'm not a Bernie fanboy, but I think it would be better if Bernie's views were accurately understood.
