Bernie Sanders was just on NBC's Today show, talking about about socialism and "free" stuff, including "free" college. --Of course, someone has got to pay for it; some professors might teach for free, but the cafeteria ladies and the fellows who run the steam plant and most certainly the administrators want to get paid, on time and in full. Something is broken in higher education, and someone is already getting "free money from the government" -- universities, in the form of guaranteed, no getting out from under them student loans, which have ballooned prices way over the rate of inflation no matter how you figure it. Do you suppose those big schools would welcome the kind of austerity a responsible fully government-funded college system would entail, or will they want to keep the good times a-rolling?
But Mr. Sanders, he handwaves his way past that, and goes on to claim the National Park System as a fine example of socialism in action. That would be the National Parks first set up by the noted socialist, Theodore Roosevelt. Yessiree, Teddy and Engels, they were best buds.... Right?
The more Bernie Sanders talks, the wilder and more alienated from core American values he sounds, and if you started out thinking, "at least he'd shake things up," you'll likely end up worried about this sincerely, deeply, wrong-headed man. He is innocent of real economics, innocent of the degree to which profit provides motivation, and sincerely believes he's the fellow to Fix Everything. He appears to be a nice man and more's the pity -- it's the guy who believes in his heart that he is Doing Good who often does the worst harm: double-dyed villains might get the trains to run on time (or at least have the worst slackers taken out and shot) and no one is very sorry at the end when the dictator is hanged from the nearest lamp-post but do-gooders create chaos, weeping real tears as their victims pile up, unable to grasp why they've not yet "built Jerusalem in [this] green and pleasant land" and redoubling their efforts as the goal slips farther and farther away. (There's some deeply weird stuff that's gone on....)
Yeah, kid, he makes your Dad see red (or Red*) and your Mom sigh in despair, but that's not actually a good reason to like him. There's plenty gone wrong in the U.S. politically, economically and socially, and people of good will can reasonably disagree about the problems and possible solutions -- but Bernie Sanders is exactly one flavor of what we don't need.
Unfortunately, his opponents within and without his own nominal party are most of the other flavors of the same repugnant dish.
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* Remember when The Media told use they were going to alternate red and blue for Dems and GOPpers every Presidential race? --And then as soon as they flipped the Republicans to red, they froze the color-coding? Sheesh.
Actually, I think the red/blue tradition, pre-2000, was that the incumbent used blue and the challenger used red. But that was 15 years ago and I've slept since then, so there's a distinct possibility that I'm wrong. I do remember Reagan stuff being red in 1976 and 1980 and blue in 1984, and I'm fairly sure that Bush 41 used blue in '88 and '92. Again: Sleep has interfered with memory.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, someone needs to go to Bernie Sanders rallies and fly a big "TANSTAAFL" banner.
From Rand's forward to "Anthem", 1946:
ReplyDelete"Some might think -- though I don't -- that nine years ago there was some excuse for men not to see the direction in which the world was going. Today, the evidence is so blatant that no excuse can be claimed by anyone any longer. Those who refuse to see it now are neither blind nor innocent.
The greatest guilt today is that of people who accept collectivism by moral default; the people who seek protection from the necessity of taking a stand, by refusing to admit to themselves the nature of that which they are accepting; the people who support plans specifically designed to achieve serfdom, but hide behind the empty assertion that they are lovers of freedom, with no concrete meaning attached to the word; the people who believe that the content of ideas need not be examined, that principles need not be defined, and that facts can be eliminated by keeping one's eyes shut. They expect, when they find themselves in a world of bloody ruins and concentration camps, to escape moral responsibility by wailing: "But I didn't mean this!"
Those who want slavery should have the grace to name it by its proper name. They must face the full meaning of that which they are advocating or condoning; the full, exact, specific meaning of collectivism, of its logical implications, of the principles upon which it is based, and of the ultimate consequences to which these principles will lead.
They must face it, then decide whether this is what they want or not."
Terrifyingly prescient, wasn't she? "Neither blind nor innocent". We can no longer give them the benefit of thinking that "they had good intentions". No, they don't. They're simply evil.
Bernie's a communist plain and simple. Some day in the future, he will be a good communist.
ReplyDeleteOne hundred years of socialism's failures prove nothing!
ReplyDeleteThey simply didn't have the right people in charge. How the socialists can pick the wrong person every time is simply astounding.
The free college idea is so terrible. First, to accommodate everybody, you have to water the courses down to participation trophy levels- you don't have the profs, TA's, or campuses available for everyone. That gives us Socialism's favorite thing- long, long waits for services.
ReplyDeleteOr, we go the way of other countries with "free college" and get really selective on who gets to go.
Meanwhile, we're already so overrun with grads holding useless degrees and massive student debts that the DNR is going to have a cull.