My Problem With Bernie Sanders' Socialism - And Response (3)

  • Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Socialism sounds great. Equality for all. But someone else gets to to decide what "equality" is.

As likable as Bernie seems I never want to wake up knowing he or any one else gets to make my decisions for me and I'm not comfortable with potential national leaders embracing him.

Are they embracing the idea of some sort of socialism or just courting votes?

Nowhere in the history of societies or experimental utopias has socialism ever worked. The decision makers wind up in limousines and the people wind up in prison or on bicycles (or with STD's).

That is not freedom. That is not liberty.

If you show up at my house bringing socialism, bring a body bag, one of us is leaving in it.

Steve Campbell
McDonald, Tn.

* * *

"First, what is the best the socialists, in their writings, can offer us? What do the most optimistic of them say?  That our subsistence will be guaranteed, while we work; that some of us, the best of us, may earn a surplus above what is actually necessary for our subsistence; and that surplus, like a good child, we may 'keep to spend.' We may not use it to better our condition, we may not, if a fisherman, buy another boat with it, if a farmer, another field ; we may not invest it, or use it productively; but we can spend it like the good child, on candy — on something we consume, or waste it, or throw it away. 

"Could not the African slave do as much? In fact, is not this whole position exactly that of the ...  slave? He, too, was guaranteed his sustenance; he, too, was allowed to keep and spend the extra money he made by working overtime; but he was not allowed to better his condition, to engage in trade, to invest it, to change his lot in life.  Precisely what makes a slave is that he is allowed no use of productive capital to make wealth on his own account.  The only difference is that under socialism, I may not be compelled to labor (I don't even know as to that — socialists differ on the point), actually compelled, by the lash, or any other force than hunger.  And the only other difference is that the … slave was under the orders of one man, while the subject of socialism will be under the orders of a committee of ward heelers. You will say, the slave could not choose his master, but we shall elect the ward politician. So we do now. Will that help much?  Suppose the man with a grievance didn't vote for him?”
--Socialism; a speech delivered in Faneuil hall, February 7th, 1903, by Frederic J. Stimson 

Professor Stimson seems to have summed up the results of socialism rather well.  Elsewhere, he points out that socialism favors the officeholder, which might explain its popularity still with those who seek government sinecure.  "At least, those who are not office holders will, under Socialism, have the hardest kind of a time.”

Bernie Sanders sells the “equality of outcome” snake oil.  What professor Deirdre McCloskey calls “French equality” after the French Revolution and Rousseau.  Of course, guillotines were rather egalitarian in the outcome of those who were disfavored by the new office holders in France.  

What Mr. Sanders ignores is the equality that made the modern world, equality before the law and equality of opportunity (social equality).  These equalities have been rare in human history and are increasingly under attack today.  For centuries, the law that covered a person, and judgements they received, were determined by their class, status, ethnicity, etc.  Also, effort to improve ones station was denied.  Even if one was to generate wealth or an innovation, it was quickly taken by those of higher station or government position.  Socialism is a return to this servile ideology. 

"Socialism is positive and aggressive, declaring that each man shall have enough. 

"It purposes to introduce new forces into society and industry; to put a stop to the idleness, the waste of resources, the misdirection of force, inseparable, in some large proportion of instances, from individual initiative; and to drive the whole mass forward in the direction determined by the intelligence of its better half. “
—Francis A. Walker, 1887

Some might find that description inviting.  The idea of driving others is a rather common one among modern politician.  Of course, they are most likely like most acolytes of socialism seeing themselves as the director of that better half or at least its trusted advisor and never that they will be among those being driven.  Which prompts this caution from economist Ludwig von Mises:

"The worst thing that can happen to a socialist is to have his country ruled by socialists who are not his friends."
--Ludwig von Mises

Jeff K. Brown
Georgetown

* * *

I'm sure if you asked Mr. Campbell his opinion on ISIS, he would say it's a reprehensible organization.   Yet he espouses the same logic that they do:  "If you disagree with my ideology, I will kill you for it."  This is what his comment about body bags really means. This is a decidedly anti-American idea.

I'm not supporting Socialism, rather speaking out against rhetoric like Mr. Campbell's.  Yes, USSR-style socialism has been a complete failure, but Senator Sanders never proposed that type of system.  Anyone that claims that he did is ignorant of the facts, likely because they consume too much propaganda and seek out media that only confirms their political beliefs.  

Mr. Brown also shows that he, too, is under the spell of propaganda and ignorant ideas when he suggests that Sanders is against "equality before the law and equality of opportunity (social equality)".  This statement is completely absurd because that was literally the core idea of Sanders campaign.  

Senator Sanders never argued for the type of Socialism that each writer speaks of in their comments.  He did not argue for government owning the means of production, rather he argued against the enormous economic and political power of the billionaire class, and our continued slide into economic and political oligarchy.  Senator Sanders was the only candidate that honestly wanted to expand and improve the middle class.  Others only paid lip service to it.

Comments that talk about killing others who disagree with us politically are not helpful for the public discourse.  They are the stock-in-trade of groups like ISIs.  I hope you can see that for what it is.

R.J. Mitchell

Chattanooga

* * *

Mr. Campbell stated "If you show up at my house bringing socialism" there would be bad things happen.

That is not a general statement that he would do things to others. I read that as a statement that he is not willing to have his life directed by someone else, not in his home, that if someone tries to force their will upon him he will react to the hostility of those others. A lot of us feel that way. A lot of us feel just as strongly that no one else has a right to direct our lives and take away our liberties without our consent.

It's easy to accuse others of being ignorant and tending toward violence by taking their words, adding thoughts and intent that are not there, then presenting it as proof they don't have any desire for polite discourse and discussion of principles. It's easy to accuse others of being the cause of breakdown in public discourse but when we accuse others of being something they are not, isn't that the true barricade to public, polite discourse? There are those subjects that are not negotiable, though. God given rights, one of those being the ability to enjoy the fruits of our labor without someone who has not earned them doing a snatch-and-grab, fall into that category. Theft is theft, whether it's government sanctioned or not.

A very dear and long time family friend has an expression about coming into our homes and forcing us to give up our God given, Constitutionally guaranteed rights that is a little more gentle than Mr. Campbell's; "Pack a lunch. Bring backup and reinforcements." I concur. So does my husband.

Vicki Rodgers


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