2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumAmerica has never recovered from Ronald Reagan. That’s why Bernie Sanders is so important.
On Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) gave his long planned speech on Democratic Socialism, invoking great American leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and reminding everyone that some of the most popular social programs we have today Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid were all once labeled socialist and aggressively opposed by monied interests, who FDR called economic royalists.
Not only were social programs opposed and called socialism; so were any kind of laws or regulations that intervened with the free market for the betterment of society. Unemployment insurance, abolishing child labor, the 40-hour work week, collective bargaining, strong banking regulations, deposit insurance, and job programs that put millions of people to work were all described, in one way or another, as socialist, explained Sanders.
Of course, capitalists never come out and say that they want the government to get out of their way so that they can take advantage of workers or employ children or contaminate the water supply. They fear-monger about the threat of socialism and claim that as long as the government intervenes with their business, we can never have true freedom.
A young propagandist named Ronald Reagan issued such a warning in the early sixties, in opposition to what is seen as the predecessor to Medicare. Federal programs, Reagan warned, will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country, until one day
we will wake to find that we have socialism. Sounds familiar.
http://www.salon.com/2015/11/22/america_has_never_recovered_from_ronald_reagan_thats_why_bernie_sanders_is_so_important/
Ed Suspicious
(8,879 posts)immoderate
(20,885 posts)--imm
Zorra
(27,670 posts)LWolf
(46,179 posts)Yallow
(1,926 posts)And we are still paying for his mess.
lastlib
(23,248 posts)Was headed for law school when he f*cked me over. Never got to go. FUCK that worthless piece of sh1t!
EndElectoral
(4,213 posts)Both materially and psychologically.
In polls of the worst President, I have even placed Reagan worse than GW, Hoover and Nixon for the lasting impact he has had on affecting the conscience of the nation and for the philosophies of trickle down and the only thing government can do is to get in the way of the people and business, as well as Iran-Contra, October Surprise, the AIDs crisis, S&L roots, and so much more. So many people bought into his philosophy though and it still reverberates in this country. I hear the mantra of Reagan everyday from people and I throw up in my mouth a little.
He was a man with a soothing and compassionate voice who had not a compassionate bone in his body.
Ferd Berfel
(3,687 posts)With Hillary it will be business as usual....