How free are you if you cannot feed your family, raise your kids,

[mmonk]

keep your home, or survive financially? Have a great 4th of July.

[daleanime]

1. Can't be said enough....

[questionseverything]

3. whenever peops say economic issues are not their number one concern

i think of this song

"I Will Buy You A New Life"

Here is the money that I owe you
So you can pay the bills
I will give you more when I get paid again
I hate those people who love to tell you
Money is the root of all that kills
They have never been poor
They have never had the joy of a welfare Christmas

bernie really is our only hope at this point

[MineralMan]

2. How can you feed your family and raise your kids

if nobody will hire you because you are {insert minority group here}?

Economic and social justice are equally important, and interact with each other intimately.

[mmonk]

5. But I hear I am an extremist or caused all the problems for the party

and am too liberal because I just want to get us back to where we were with the New Deal. Damn sick of it. I'm close to having enough. Neoliberals and it's twin, Reaganomics has failed me. I will not accept the blame or that I'm screwed up for thinking differently because I lived differently. That is all. I hope everyone has a great 4th and fly your flag.

[MineralMan]

8. The New Deal did little for POC, frankly.

They're still screwed in terms of social equality and justice.

Other minority groups have similar problems. They can't get the jobs that will allow them to feed and house their families, because of something about them they have no control over.

Economic justice is important. So is social justice. Neither can succeed without the other. And that's a fact. It's not one or the other that is needed. It is decidedly BOTH.

[daleanime]

9. Exactly.....

when working on one you have to be aware of the other. This is one of the things I love about the Bernie is that he talks about this.

[MineralMan]

11. Yes, he does. So do all Democratic candidates.

Some focus more strongly on one or the other, but all understand that both are important.

I live in one of this country's larger metro areas. Here, as in most such places, POC have far fewer economic opportunities, poorer schools, and plenty of prejudice against them for their race. Relieving poverty is an important thing, but so is relieving prejudice that helps to keep minority groups in poverty.

Both things must be done if the problems are to be overcome. Our society depends on the success of that. We're not doing a good job, overall with the social justice side. Despite an excellent economy in Minnesota, the same problems still exist for POC and other minorities. It won't be fixed without a focus on prejudice, no matter how much money flows through businesses. It can't happen.

[jwirr]

4. Bingo.

[mmonk]

6. Thank you.

[LongTomH]

7. Quotes from Franklin D. Roosevelt:

Unhappy events abroad have retaught us two simple truths about the liberty of a democratic people.

The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism—ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.

The second truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if its business system does not provide employment and produce and distribute goods in such a way as to sustain an acceptable standard of living.

Both lessons hit home.

Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing.

This concentration is seriously impairing the economic effectiveness of private enterprise as a way of providing employment for labor and capital and as a way of assuring a more equitable distribution of income and earnings among the people of the nation as a whole.”

"We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made."

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

10. Free enough to starve and die.

That's a pretty libertarian idea of freedom.

[forsaken mortal]

12. I'm surprised

I'm surprised Bernie has gotten as far as he has. When he first started campaigning, I expected that the more corporate elements of the party would have managed to push him aside by now. I hope he can keep up the momentum and make it all the way to the White House.

[PowerToThePeople]

13. you are not

[world wide wally]

14. On simple matters like life itself, but not when it comes to money, Republicans love to say,

"Freedom isn't free"... But I guess lives are cheaper to them.