This gem appeared on my Facebook timeline this morning. It is a testament to the depth of Bernie Sanders’s supporters’ misunderstandings.
The fact that Sanders wants an education, health care, good jobs, and good pay for everyone distinguishes him from virtually no one. Wanting those things does not make him the bad guy. Everyone who does not want those things for everyone is a bad guy.
A problem with the list of wants is that it is too constrained. In addition to the things listed, all good people would want everyone to be happy, in good health, knowledgeable, and wise as well. Good and knowledgeable people know that no government has a magic wand that can wave all of those things into existence. Learned and wise people know that pursuing an impossible dream would be a waste of resources that could have been used to do good. Activist people who do not understand that and people who do understand that but can profit from the fact that most people do not realize that are called “socialists.” Those in the latter group are not only bad, but they are also evil. (Bernie strikes me as smart enough to know that his proposals are not in the best interest of the American people. I cannot tell if he is wise enough to see that the demise of America is not in the best interest of the world.[i] A case can be made that one who seeks power over a people in order to lead those people to their demise exhibits the essence of evil.)
So, Bernie is not a bad buy because he wants the listed things for Americans. He is a bad guy for his (1) self-righteous, and self-serving skills at persuading people to believe (or validating people’s errant beliefs) that socialism is a viable economic system for the U.S. (unlike all the other more socialist countries in the world, the U.S. has no sugar daddy for their daily inventions, defense, funds for pet projects, high-price customers for medical and other research and development companies, and many other goodies upon which it can rely), (2) fanning the self-defeating flames of envy, resentment, and revolution, and (3) providing debilitating false hope to millions of people.
[i] “Medicare For All? At What Cost To Us and The Rest Of The World?”
