Politicians like State Rep. Todd Rutherford (D-SC) hurts the progress of many
While perusing my news feed this morning with the news at a much lower decibel than normal, I heard this politician who said that it was a cinch now for Hillary Clinton to take the democratic nomination. I casually looked at the TV, saw that it was State Representative Todd Rutherford (D-SC), a Clinton supporter, and then dismissed it for a few seconds. But then he said something that had me pulling the hairs that I don’t have out of my head.
Steve Kornacki asked Rutherford why was Hillary Clinton having such a problem with a socialist candidate. Note Kornacki removed the most important, ‘democratic’ qualifier. Rutherford response was infuriating.
“I think there are a number of Democratic voters who simply did not want to hand it to anybody, including Hillary Clinton,” Rutherford said. “They were interested in alternatives. They looked at what Bernie Sanders had to offer. But as his message permeates, as people start to pick it apart and say, you simply can’t promise everybody the entire world. You can’t simply give away everything including college education and have these plans that don’t make sense. As people listened to his message. They processed it. They realized it is not going to work and they are going to come back to Hillary Clinton. And they have done that in South Carolina. And I believe they will do that in the rest of the states as well.”
Rutherford is a clear example of what happens when one is far removed from the ills that inflicts a large percentage of the population. He can casually dismiss their needs as unattainable.
I was very disappointed in Steve Kornacki’s interview. The question begged for a follow up. He should have asked which Bernie Sanders policies are a promise of giving away the world and unwarranted free stuff. Kornacki should have asked what specific Bernie Sanders policies make no sense.
Would Rutherford have considered free K-12 free stuff as well when it was deemed K-12 was necessary to move America forward? Germany and many other advanced countries where the average population is more educated than Americans provide free college for their citizens. Most advance countries provide some sort of universal healthcare, the most efficient being Medicare for all / single payer healthcare. Every country in the world except for the United States and Papua Guinea offer paid family leave.
There is money to fund all of these programs. Our current policies have allowed a few to hoard unearned income and wealth. In the process these irresponsibly low tax policies and high expenditures that benefited the military industrial complex and Wall Street have left America with a huge debt. The interest paid on that debt by us all is a further wealth transfer to wealthy bondholders. It is time to restructure the economy to return the legalized theft of America’s treasure back to those who made the wealth possible, poor and middle-class America. Bernie Sanders’ policies is but a start.
We must also rid ourselves of the wards of the plutocracy, the wards of Wall Street, and the wards of the wealthy like Todd Rutherford. They are but the slave master’s tools to control every middle-class and poor American ensuring they will be de facto indentured servants. They are the paid puppets that have sold their souls.