Bernie Sanders highlights a big Republican hypocrisy
At times a Valentine’s day lovefest between Bernie & Hillary
There has been much concentration on several purported gotcha moments in the Democratic Debate. The reality is that Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have a lot in common as far as the ultimate results they want for the country. They just have different ways of getting there. In fact at times in the debate the lovefest of agreement seemed like Valentine’s Day.
It is true that Hillary Clinton is much too ingratiated to monied interests. That said, I do believe she wants to do good albeit blinded from the reality of what our style of capitalism has effected on middle-class and poor Americans.
Bernie Sanders understands from the gut that our style of capitalism by definitions has no heart. As such he believes that one must carve out humanity codified in rights enforced by the government, we the people, at all cost. The decline of the middle-class under 40 years of a middle-class extractive capitalism is probative.
When discussing women’s progress Bernie Sanders had a prescient statement that should have gotten much more press. He deconstructs a Republican hypocrisy that materially affects women.
“Let me concur with the secretary, no question women’s rights are under fierce attack all over this country,” said Bernie Sanders. “And I will tell you something that really galls me. I will not shock anybody to suggest that in politics there is occasionally a little bit of hypocrisy. Just a little bit. All over this country we have Republican candidates for president saying we hate the government. Government is the enemy. We’re going to cut Social Security to help you. We’re going to cut Medicare and Medicaid, federal aid to education to help you, because the government is so terrible. But, by the way, when it comes to a woman having to make a very personal choice, ah, in that case, my Republican colleagues love the government and want the government to make that choice for every woman in America. If that’s not hypocrisy, I don’t know what hypocrisy is.”
The reality is that while Bernie Sanders made this statement as it relates to women, one could do an enumeration of Republican policies and find these types of hypocrisies and inconsistencies. Support of corporate subsidies (corporate welfare) while fighting to reduce or eliminate human subsidies (earned and human entitlements) is a classic example.
Happy Valentine’s Day. Stay politically engaged.