Representative Spencer Bachus is one of the only people I know from Alabama. I bet I'm the only socialist he knows. I'm certainly the only one the congressman from Birmingham could name after darkly claiming that there are 17 socialists lurking in the House of Representatives.
I doubt that there are any other socialists, let alone 17 more, in all of the Congress. I also respectfully doubt that Spencer Bachus understands much about democratic socialism. I hope this is an opportunity to shed some light on a viewpoint that deserves more attention throughout America and in our capital.
At its best, Washington brings people like us together to fight for our principles and work things out for the good of the country. Spencer and I used to serve together on the House Financial Services Committee. I don't mean to hurt him back home, but the truth is that he even cosponsored an amendment of mine once on credit card ripoffs.
At its worst, Washington is a place where name-calling partisan politics too often trumps policy. A standard refrain in John McCain's presidential stump speeches last fall was a claim that Barack Obama's Senate voting record was more liberal than Senate's only socialist, yours truly. That is nonsense on several levels. Even as political hyperbole, the attack didn't work out all that well for my colleague from Arizona.
Still, branding someone as a socialist has become the slur du jour by leading lights of the American right from Newt Gingrich to Rush Limbaugh. Some, like Mike Huckabee, intentionally blur the differences between socialism and communism, between democracy and totalitarianism. "Lenin and Stalin would love this stuff," Huckabee told last winter's gathering of the Conservative Political Action Conference.
If we could get beyond such nonsense, I think this country could use a good debate about what goes on here compared to places with a long social-democratic tradition like Sweden, Norway and Finland, where, by and large, the middle class has a far higher standard of living than we do.
I was honored last year to show Ambassador Pekka Lintu of Finland around my home state of Vermont. There was standing-room only at a town meeting where people came to hear more about one of the world's most successful economic and social models.
And what we learned impressed us. Finland is a country which provides high-quality health care to all of its people with virtually no out-of-pocket expense; where parents and their young children receive free excellent childcare and/or parental leave benefits which dwarf what our nation provides; where college and graduate education is free to students and where children in the public school system often record the highest results in international tests. In Finland, where 80 percent of workers belong to unions, all employees enjoy at least 30 days paid vacation and the gap between the rich and poor is far more equitable than in the United States.
One reason there was so much interest in the Finnish model was that even before Wall Street greed drove the world economy into a deep recession, more and more Americans were wondering why the very rich were becoming richer while our economy failed our working families. They wanted to know why the middle class was shrinking, poverty was increasing and the United States was the only major country without a national health care program.
Despite all the rhetoric about "family values," workers in the United States now work the longest hours of any people in a major country. Our health care system is disintegrating. At last count, 47 million Americans had no health insurance while we spend twice as much per capita on health care as any other nation.
We have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world. Our childcare system is totally inadequate. Too many of our kids drop out of school, and college is increasingly unaffordable. One of the results of how we neglect many of our children is that we end up with more people in jails and prisons than any other country on earth. There is a correlation between the highest rate of childhood poverty and the highest rate of incarceration.
Let's be clear. Finland is no utopia. Not so many years ago, it experienced a severe economic downturn. Its economy today is not immune to what is happening in the rest of the world. There also are, to be sure, important differences between the United States and Finland - a small country with a population of only 5.2 million people. Finland has a very homogenous population. We are extremely diverse. Finland is the size of Montana. We stretch 3,000 miles from coast to coast.
Despite the differences, there are important similarities. Both countries share many of the same aspirations for their people. When one thinks about the long march of human history, it is no small thing that democratic countries like Finland exist that operate under egalitarian principles, which have virtually abolished poverty, which provide almost-free, quality health care to all their people, and provide free, high-quality education from child care to graduate school.
Whether we live in Burlington, Vt. or Birmingham, Ala., we should be prepared to study and learn from the successes of social-democratic countries. Name-calling and scare tactics just won't do.
Follow Sen. Bernie Sanders on Twitter: www.twitter.com/senatorsanders
A fly bites one, it starts running and so do all the rest. The rest don't know why they are running. It isn't logical, it is just fear driving them. They trample members of their own herd even killing some.
This is why the right is relying of fear.
It is like the fear, of the unknown, of real or imagined enemies, that turns off reason.
Once we have reason turned off, they can run us into the slaughterhouse whenever they like.
It is based on threat, that either pain or harm will result should there not be compliance.
Fear is one of several manipulating tactics controlling people use on their prey:
confusion, lies, innuendo, disinformation, promises-----all work.
All can appeal to the herd mentality ("everybody sees it this way"), all can block awareness of the actual motives and strategy the controller employs.
All can allow the controller to get what they want.
The one that is used most successfully in modern times is the age-old magician's trick of distraction ----- getting the subject to look at something else while the trickery is performed: Britney Spears, anyone? Or, American Idol? Or, sex scandal du jour. Or, Amadinejab's latest. Or, swine flu. Or, the new pet. Or, Limbaugh, etc etc etc etc. . . . . .
If the US goes the socialist route we are in for a huge surprise. It is logical that in the short run, socialism would be beneficial. However, in the long run, it would thin out finances, lower the standard of living (yes for the middle class), class gaps would broaden, there would be a brain drain, competition would flounder, corruption would skyrocket, military would be weakened, health care would be substandard, dependency on others will flourish and the country would fall apart.
A socialist society, especially when introduced to a country the size of the US (and growing rapidly) will have one end... Communism. Why? Because the hole will get deeper and deeper and there will be nowhere else to go..
China is not an example of democratic socialism. China is an example of communism and I would say totalitarianism as well, yet they are the darlings of the conservatives.
Also, as Sen. Sanders points out, the middle class is BETTER OFF than the American middle class in European socialist democracies, and better off in the long run. All your dire predictions are not proven in reality. Why don't you visit northern Europe and spend some time there. Or even live in Canada for a while and see that people can be happy and safe with national health care and equality.
Open your mind...
China is a great example of socialism.. Why wouldnt you want to admit that...
I live in Panama where health care is socialistic. Its pretty sad when you have to pay off people to get ahead in line in order to receive shotty service..
BTW, Europe is in very bad shape... They are becoming more and more in debt because they cant afford their socialist ideals anymore..
One more point, if the US wasn't their defenders, where would they get the money to defend themselves???
My mind is open. It is unfortunate that the meaning of "open your mind" to you is reading what is appealing to your idealistic, self righteous views which ultimately will fail if implemented.. Russia went to socialism which evolved in to communism... My suggestion, move to one of these countries instead of trying to change the one which was built on the opposite ideals...
Oh, you didn't mean that. You just mean some socialism for the rest of us. Pfui.
Those in power at the top prefer it this way as it keeps a compliant workforce of expendable cheap drones, so they have a stake on propagating the myth. And Conservatives love to shout "socialism" that in their very limited understanding don't know what it means, they chant labels without even realizing that they are arguing for their own enslavement.
This might come to you as a surprise but I am not a socialist. I am more of a conservative than anything else but I come to this strictly as a systems guy. Our system is out of balance and is well on its way to self-destruction. In order to save it (conserve the good part of it) you need a critical mass of re-balancing. How is that going to be achieved? The only way I can see at the moment is to move the center of gravity leftward. This is not going to happen on its own nor will it happen by empowering traditional liberal thinking. The system needs a judicious injection of socialist thought. If we don't do it, the current system will self-destruct and there will be very little left to conserve.
You are the best, and this is your best.
Someday we will have universal health care and true economic democracy in this country.
And we will undoubtedly have you and many other social-democratic leaders to thank.
I'm not sure it can get done without a new independent, social-democrat party, or not.
Summers and Geithner and Rubin and Bernanke are all making it very doubtful that it can be done with even the best of the Democratic Party.
I know the people are there.
But first we need to break the stranglehold that the private bankers have over the two major parties, and that can only be done by abolishing the debt-money system of the private federal reserve banking system.
Why do you think Finland has the same "financial" problems that we do?
They are part of the mainly private-central-banking system of the EU.
Some day, we will be sovereign countries, with our OWN central banks.
Then, we can really move on.
Greenbacks.
Wish we had a guy like this in Florida.
IMHO, our society over the last few generations has been programmed by corporate America to believe competition provides the greatest benefit to our society and the results are measured soley by profits.
Consequently, it seems our society is now all about winners and losers, us and them, good and bad, etc...
This results in labeling of people where your either for everything a group stands for and against everything the group is against or your out of the group. This propogates stereotypes, stifles constructive debate, and becomes a platform McCarthyism type movements.
Most concerning effects to me are the essential elimination of rational analysis of issues.
Also, there is not such thing as virtually free health care in Finland as Senator Sanders stipulates. The health care is provided by the rich that pay taxes; the taxes are used for wages of health employees and costs of medical supplies. We should thank the rich for creating so much wealth and then paying for almost 90% of everything the government provides.
without socialist programs the wealthy would not be wealthy; there would be instability and chaos--the enlightened wealthy in the Northern European social democratic countries are smart--they know that if they help pay for good education, they get good workers; if they give back a lil for good healthcare--they get healthy, happier workers who will have more MONEY in their pockets to buy their goods and products. In the US wages are stagnant and are at the same level, adjusted for inflation, as the 1906s' while the top 1% wealth grew much more. Now, we are seeing the effect--slow demand, no one buying homes or buying anymore cheap consumer crap--businesses are hurting, credit cards can't sell their op ium anymore, ya know why??? Cois people don't have the money to spend! They have to pay more to put their kids through school and college; to pay for medical bills, and food. Period. prices go up, but not wages, demand will slow and the economy will hurt. IT's simple people; bottom up. Without the little guy, the rich would be in big trouble.
There are some structural flaws that the c0nservatives have noticed over the last 90 years...
Hopsitals and doctors have to be paid to stay in business and the losses
they take in the ER room go to you through your increased insurance
premiums....same with prescription drugs and other health related services
and products....
Your idea that it will be more expensive for everyone is erroneous....it's not
a fact and you can read article upon article and study upon study to find
the truth on this....
I am self employed, have sent one son to college and still have another
studying. I work long and hard everyday. Somtimes seven days a week
and never less than 13 hours a day. I cannot afford health insurance
because I have a pre-existing back injury....I don't want a hand out I just
want some fairness in pricing and policy...
So Corporations get tax breaks, your government has a 66,000 page code, that no one understands and corporations follow the governments rules. If you don't like the tax plan I urge you to look at the Fair Tax plan. By the way I am no right wing, I am an Independent Thinker.