There are a few things to respond to here.You know this confuses me. Firstly the quote is from 1981. Somehow I don't exactly know how relevant that still is to someone's position. Secondly, every day I hear people on this board say how lefties want 'free shit'. Here he says he doesn't believe in that and somehow that's destroying society?Regardless.No, Obama's priorities were not what he claimed. Congress was fully on board with his pro-corporate policies. They bucked a few social issues which is really not that important to start with.
In another time that never happened. Obama doesn't decide to do a corporate give away of our health care (which is what Obamacare was). We don't get the mess we did to get it passed. We don't get the lies about what it was. The (D)s dont get crushed over all of that.
Let's say that all Obama could get done was getting rid of the pre-existing condition problem and getting people up to age 26 to remain on their parents insurance. Both were very popular options and would have went over really well. Obama argues up to the 2010 elections that he needed help to further these ideas. The (D)'s don't lose the House and Senate. Obama could have built upon those two programs. But no, he wanted to reward the Insurance and pharmaceutical companies (and Wall Street) that funded his campaign.
I maintain, the elites have done this all on purpose.
Do not be deceived into believing this is "people power."
This was a purposeful application of the Hegelian Dialectic for an End Game.
The powers that be are holding all the cards.
A nomination and election of Trump and Bernie do not serve to destroy the system as usual. Do not be deceived. Things will not improve in any significant way for the average person.
If Bernie wins and does nothing for the people (which is an idea I totally reject as that is who he has always been) those like myself (a growing number of people) will go even more extreme.
Bernie cares about the power of the STATE. . . and control of people.
A bit naive. Well meaning? Perhaps. But that is his highest priority, NOT helping people.
Bernie Sanders: 'I don't believe in charities' - WND
Thirdly unrelated I also want to add this. During the industrial revolution, the church in an effort to deal with the growing unrest of the working class an unrest that saw the birth of Socialism and unions it's response was and I'm simplifying here that the working class should NOT organize. They should simply know their place and it was the rich people's duty to give them charity. Of course, the charity wouldn't have meant an end to child labor, the 'chit system' 14-hour workdays and the like. In that light, I understand what Bernie is saying.
Charity even today is to often used as a way for the ultra-rich to inoculate themselves against public opinion turning against them. The concept itself is not bad but in the end, it doesn't solve problems.
So. .. socialists pointing out his ideological consistency over time. . . that's O.K.?
Anyone else does so. . . .
The problem with the left? Is their leaders are out of touch with the nation. They are trying to use class warfare, and it just hasn't worked, and won't ever work again. Folks don't like it anymore.
Do the poor and middle class struggle? Sure. Do most of them recognize that there is a wealth gap? Sure.
But they also, if they are educated, understand what the super wealthy do, and have done for society. The collective memory of the USSR vs the US in economic terms, is a lesson the planet will never forget.
Even now, everyone knows, economically, China uses State capitalism, not socialism.
Politicians should stop bashing the rich… most of us just don’t agree
Politicians should stop bashing the rich… most of us just don’t agree | Sonia Sodha
". . .The left has had more success when it makes the case in terms designed to appeal to the persuadable. For example, the campaign for equal marriage in the US achieved such a big impact because it framed the argument using conservative values of family and responsibility, rather than leftwing values of equality and human rights. When it comes to higher taxes, there is evidence to suggest that the public can be won over; six in 10 think the government should be taxing and spending more. But, according to Nicky Hawkins, a communications strategist at the FrameWorks Institute, Labour needs to do more explaining, rather than relying on shorthands such as “the top 1%” and “corporate greed”, which might resonate in a constituency meeting but not in a party political broadcast. “There are clear lessons from attempts to reform harmful tobacco and food industry practices,” Hawkins says. “Campaigners need to succinctly define the ‘baddie’ and explain their wrongdoing. Too often, they assume people automatically see things the way they do.”
This is consistent with new research about to be published by Tax Justice UK that found that, when making the case for a more progressive tax system, bashing the wealthy resonated far less well with voters than specific arguments about closing loopholes and increasing particular taxes. It might be less sexy than talk of predatory wealth extractors, but it is more effective. The left might also do well to focus on the instrumental rather than the moral case: tax as a building block for a better society rather than as a way to punish the undeserving rich.. . . "
Firstly, do you really want to talk about hypocrisy and ideological consistency to me? Until a few years ago the GOP was the party of free trade. That didn't stop them from supporting tariffs. Until a few years ago the GOP was the party of Evangelicals didn't stop them from overwhelmingly supporting a serial adulterer who literally paid porn stars to have sex with him. The only thing that is on-brand is the tax cuts and even that was accomplished by borrowing money. There goes the GOP's stance on debt. I would love to talk with ideologically consistent Republicans. The problem is they don't exist anymore.
Secondly, I love how you are trying to imply that the super-wealthy are a force for good before and now. I gave the example of the industrial revolution. Child labor, exploitative work hours and a political and religious system geared to sustaining it. Those are not forces for good. I would argue all the things that we now recognize as quality of life things, pensions, paid holidays, education for our children, universal suffrage, sick leave, wages that allow for luxuries, etc. etc. were achieved despite the rich not because of them. Today when the price of insulin doubled in a five-year period that's not because of altruism. When companies promote and bribe doctors to prescribe Ophiods it's not altruism. When banks issue loans to people who they know can't pay them back that's not altruism.
People might not like the idea of class warfare but that's exactly what is happening. And the rich are winning. They are winning because they have convinced both the left and right that the war is between left and right and not between rich and not-rich. Don't get me wrong I do not begrudge anybody their wealth. The thing is when you do the stuff as described in the previous paragraph you begrudge not just what wealth I do have but even my right to live. How much sense does it make for someone on the right who doesn't have a lot of money to be against affordable healthcare? How much sense does it make for someone on the right who isn't rich to be against being able to send their kids to college without having to save their entire life to allow for it or make the kids themselves go into debt? Yet that's exactly what happens.