In attempt to widen the appeal of his brand of democratic socialism, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday tied himself to the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt and called for far-reaching social programs to reduce income inequality.
“When I use the world socialist–and I know some people aren’t comfortable about it—I’m saying that it is imperative,” Sanders said, that we “create a government that works for all and not just the few.”
Democratic socialism, Sanders said, is not tied to any Marxist belief or the abolition of capitalism. “I don’t believe government should own the means of production, but I do believe that the middle class and the working families who produce the wealth of America deserve a fair deal,” he said.
Sanders use of the term “democratic socialist” has been both a weakness and a strength. He refused in the first Democratic debate in Las Vegas to call himself a capitalist, calling it a “casino” system, but has insisted he would not overturn the free market.
Rather, Sanders says, he wants to implement broad-based reforms, including free tuition at public universities, campaign finance reform and single-payer healthcare. “My vision its not just making modest changes around the edge,” Sanders said.
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Thursday that economic security is essential to Americans achieving true freedom, a central tenet in his political philosophy of “democratic socialism.”
The Vermont senator said the idea has roots in the legacies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Real freedom must include economic security. That was Roosevelt’s vision 70 years ago. It is my vision today,” Sanders said in a speech at Georgetown University. “It is a vision that we have not yet achieved and it is time that we did.”
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In explaining his views, Sanders chose in Roosevelt an icon of the Democratic party and sought to connect his values with Democratic voters, presenting himself as a vessel for some of the late president’s unfinished business.
The speech cited Roosevelt’s “Second Bill of Rights” from his 1944 State of the Union address which asserted Americans should have the right to a job with a living wage, health care, education and economic protections for the elderly.
Presidential frontrunner Bernie Sanders has never shied away from calling himself a “democratic socialist” – a term that became a slur in post-WWII American politics – despite being widely criticized for endorsing his political philosophy.
Although the word “socialism” doesn’t carry the same negative undertone it once did, not among the young voters at least, many political analysts once believed that the label of socialism on the Vermont senator would affect his presidential run. However, it appears that he has successfully managed to become a legitimate contender for the Democratic nomination against Hillary Clinton.
Speaking to a crowd of students at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. on Thursday, Sanders finally detailed why he calls himself a democratic socialist, what the label means to him and how it would affect America if he were to become president.
He also clarified that his political viewpoint was the “authentic face of American democracy,” not a radical foreign import as many claim it to be.
“I don’t believe in some foreign ‘ism’, but I believe deeply in American idealism,” Sanders told the students, drawing parallels between his views and those Franklin Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr. and Pope Francis to tell to impress upon the audience how largely misunderstood the term is.
“I don’t believe government should take over the grocery store down the street or own the means of production,” he said, rejecting the strict definition of socialism. “But I do believe that the middle class and the working families who produce the wealth of America deserve a decent standard of living and that their incomes should go up, not down. I do believe in private companies that thrive and invest and grow in America, companies that create jobs here, rather than companies that are shutting down in America and increasing their profits by exploiting low-wage labor abroad.”
"Real freedom must include economic security. That was Roosevelt's vision 70 years ago. It is my vision today," the Democratic presidential candidate said. "People are not truly free when they are unable to feed their family. They are not truly free when their are unable to retire with dignity. They are not truly free when they are unemployed, underemployed, or when they are exhausted from working 60 or 70 years a week."
In appealing to the principles of freedom and "economic rights," in a phrase of Roosevelt's that Sanders quoted, the senator from Vermont tried to steal the thunder from his conservative detractors. His opponents also cite personal freedom, saying Sanders's vision of socialism would leave Americans less free to pursue their economic interests without interference from government. Under his agenda, for example, private health insurers and colleges would have to compete with government-sponsored insurance and education, and the rich would have to forfeit more of their earnings in taxes.
In his speech, Sanders also cited a remarkable statistic: 0.1 percent of American families enjoy almost as much as wealth 90 percent of the rest of the country put together.
In 2014, just 160,000 families, each with a net worth in excess of $20.6 million, counted themselves among the wealthiest 0.1 percent of households. Together, they owned nearly as much as everyone from the very poor to the upper middle class combined -- 90 percent of the country, some 145 million families in total.
Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is returning to South Carolina for a town hall with one of the state's legislators.
The Vermont senator is attending a town hall in Charleston on Friday hosted by state Sen. Marlon Kimpson.
Kimpson says his co-hosts for the event at Burke High School include the Charleston Democratic Party and state representatives, including Seth Whipper and Wendell Gilliard.
Kimpson has invited all of the Democratic candidates to appear at individual town hall meetings in his Senate district.
Before Kim Nguyen and her husband, Paul, started campaigning for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders back in June, Kim says the couple was super active and healthy: They went to the gym five days a week. They ate well. They made healthy living a priority. But when campaigning picked up and began requiring more and more of their free time, well, “We started eating like crap, stopped going to the gym. Something felt off,” she says.
Kim began to brainstorm ways to balance the demands of the campaign schedule — they volunteer around their full-time jobs — with the need to be physically active. Then, one day, it hit her: They could do both at the same time.
"All it really takes to campaign is to go out there and hold a Bernie sign while you take a walk," Kim says, who lives in Yorktown. "And I figured if we were able to find motivated Bernie supporters, it could turn into something pretty neat and free and healthy."
You see where this is going, right? A few weeks ago, Kim and Paul launched the first "Bernin' Calories" campaigning walking and running club, in which Bernie Sanders supporters are able to spread their candidate's message while also getting outside to move their bodies a bit. Says Kim, "We’re being active, both politically and physically."
In a lengthy speech to a jam-packed house at Georgetown University this afternoon, the senator and presidential candidate called for the creation of a new multi-nation organization to fight global extremism.
“We must create a new organization like NATO to confront the security threats of the 21st century -- an organization that emphasizes cooperation and collaboration to defeat the rise of violent extremism and, importantly, to address the root causes underlying these brutal acts,” he said in the speech. “We must work with our NATO partners, we must work to expand the coalition with Russia and we must work with members of the Arab League.”
The senator’s campaign press secretary, Symone Sanders, confirmed after the speech that the candidate wants Russia and Arab League member nations to be part of the group. She referred to it as “NATO 2.0.”
NATO and Russia have a complicated relationship, as you might imagine, and Russia was strongly opposed when Albania and Croatia joined the alliance in 2009. So suggesting that NATO member states team up in a similar alliance with Russia is, to put it mildly, outside the mainstream.
Sanders also spent a significant part of the final sections of his speech discussing his stance and strategy on ISIS, and he used the opportunity to express skepticism of intervention and make the case for a robust multilateralism.
Foreign policy has never been Sanders' strong suit, but he did make a remarkable foray into the past failures of American intervention, the kind of survey that you would never have heard from President Barack Obama during his criticism of the Iraq War when he ran for the presidency in 2008.
"Rushing to war, regime change in Iraq, or toppling [Prime Minister Mohammad] Mossadegh in Iran in 1953 or Guatemalan President [Jacobo] Árbenz in 1954, Brazilian President [João] Goulart in 1964, Chilean President [Salvador] Allende in 1973 — these are the sorts of policies [that] do not work, do not make us safer and must not be repeated," Sanders said.
The other, more notable feature of Sanders' discussion of the approach toward ISIS was his eagerness to place the burden on Arab states to lead the effort.
"ISIS is a struggle for the soul of Islam, and countering violent extremism and destroying ISIS must be done primarily by Muslim nations – with the strong support of their global partners," Sanders said.
Cooperation abroad, and class war at home. Sanders isn't really a socialist, but he's certainly not a typical Democrat.
Students across the PSU campus are beginning to think about whom they want to vote for President of the United States next November, and several students are looking towards Bernie Sanders, one of the Democratic nominees.
Trevor Burrows, senior in field biology, says he supports Bernie Sanders as the next President of the United States. Burrows says Sanders is helping to expose the decline of the democracy and raise of a plutocracy in the country.
“Bernie has been the same ol’ Bernie since he first ran for public office in the 1970s,” Burrows said. “He is a democratic socialist and an independent. Bernie isn’t taking money from giant Super Pacs, but rather from the middle class that donates to his campaign.
Burrows added Sanders is anti-establishment of two party politics that have hijacked the democratic process.
“I think Bernie is one of the few politicians that actually care about the many, when most politicians only work for the few,” Burrows said.
Yegor Rowan also supports Bernie Sanders as the next President of the United States.
“Bernie Sanders is a political candidate that is a breath of fresh air,” said Rowan, junior in biology. “His views aren’t political in nature, they are just the view of a good human being.”
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