{"id":6636,"date":"2016-02-27T13:37:53","date_gmt":"2016-02-27T13:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2016\/02\/27\/is-sanders-a-socialist\/"},"modified":"2016-02-27T13:37:53","modified_gmt":"2016-02-27T13:37:53","slug":"is-sanders-a-socialist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2016\/02\/27\/is-sanders-a-socialist\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Sanders a Socialist?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bernie Sanders calls himself a socialist and I have loosely referred to him in the same way, violating my own strictures against loose talk.  Mea culpa<\/em>.  But of course Sanders is not a socialist in any reasonably strict sense of the term.  Not only does he misuse the term, but he also does so quite foolishly since in American politics 'socialist' remains a dirty word. By so labeling himself he insures that he will never be more than a Vermont senator.  He is a decent old coot, unlike the despicable Hillary, but in the end a side show on the way to the main event.  Practically, then, my question is moot<\/a>, but theoretically interesting nonetheless.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sanders recently claimed<\/a> that he, like Pope Francis, is a socialist.  When asked to clarify his meaning, he said the following:  "Well, what it means to be a socialist, in the sense of what the pope is talking about, what I'm talking about, is to say that [1] we have got to do our best and live our lives in a way that alleviates human suffering, [2] that does not accelerate the disparities of income and wealth."<\/span><\/p>\n

I have intercalated numbers to distinguish the two different claims Sanders makes.  [1] has nothing specifically to do with socialism.  After all, I agree with [1] and I support free enterprise under the rule of law.  Capitalism is good because it leads to prosperity and the alleviation of human suffering. Capitalism makes charitable giving possible.   [2] has something to do with socialism but it is based on the foolish notion that there is something wrong with inequality as such.<\/span><\/p>\n

The main point, however, is that Sanders' definition of 'socialism' is risible. Here<\/a> is a dictionary definition adequate for present purposes:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods;<\/span><\/p>\n

a system of society or group living in which there is no private property :<\/span>  a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

By this definition, Sanders is not a socialist.  For he does not advocate government ownership of the means of production, nor is he out to abolish all private property.   He needs capitalism to generate the loot that he wants to confiscate and redistribute.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here<\/a> it is argued that Sanders would do better to label himself a social democrat rather than a democratic socialist.<\/span><\/p>\n

While Sanders is not a socialist strictly speaking you could say he is drifting in the socialist direction toward the omni-competent (omni-incompetent?) and omni-intrusive state.  So if you value liberty you must oppose Bernie and Hillary and the whole bunch of gun-grabbing, religion-bashing, race-baiting, tradition-trashing, free speech-despising, liberty-quashing, Constitution-shredding, state-worshipping, hate-America leftists.<\/span><\/p>\n

So if it comes down to Trump versus Hillary, you must roll the dice and vote for the awful Trump and hope for the best.
<\/span><\/p>\n

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Bernie Sanders calls himself a socialist and I have loosely referred to him in the same way, violating my own strictures against loose talk.  Mea culpa.  But of course Sanders is not a socialist in any reasonably strict sense of the term.  Not only does he misuse the term, but he also does so quite … Continue reading “Is Sanders a Socialist?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-social-and-political-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}