Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumNoam Chomsky is exactly right about how mainstream Bernie's policies really are
Noam Chomsky is exactly right about how mainstream Bernies policies really are no matter how much the GOP calls him a socialist
Lost in the discussions about Bernie Sanderss socialism is an obvious and important fact: What hes actually proposing is not only not radical its mainstream. Sanders decided not to dodge the socialist label and instead own it by contextualizing it in the broader American tradition. He even gave a sweeping speech in which he grounded his philosophy in the tradition of FDR:
Almost everything he [FDR] proposed was called socialist. Social Security, which transformed life for the elderly in this country was socialist. The concept of minimum wage was seen as a radical intrusion into the marketplace and was described as socialist. Unemployment insurance, abolishing child labor, the 40-hour work week, collective bargaining, strong banking regulations, deposit insurance, and job programs that put millions of people to work were all described, in one way or another, as socialist. Yet these programs have become the fabric of our nation and the foundation of the middle class.
All Sanders has done is challenge the gospel of neoliberalism, which has systematically gutted our countrys public institutions. Americas economy has been steadily deregulated since the 1980s, when President Reagan first surrendered to the privatization scheme of neoliberalism. What were left with now, as Sanders pointed out in that speech, is a system which during the 1990s allowed Wall Street to spend $5 billion in lobbying and campaign contributions to get deregulated. Then, ten years later, after the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior of Wall Street led to their collapse, it is a system which provided trillions in government aid to bail them out. In other words, we now have socialism for the rich and free market capitalism for everyone else. This is a perverse inversion of the historical norm, and Sanders is right to attack it.
Noam Chomsky was asked what he thought about Bernie Sanderss platform. His answer was what youd expect from someone aware of the nations political history:
Hes considered radical and extremist, which is a pretty interesting characterization, because hes basically a mainstream New Deal Democrat. His positions would not have surprised President Eisenhower, who said, in fact, that anyone who does not accept New Deal programs doesnt belong in the American political system. Thats now considered very radical.
This point cant be made enough. For all his talk of a revolution, Sanderss proposals are far too modest to be called revolutionary. Hes merely demanding a return to the midcentury norm, to the nation of FDR and Eisenhower and Johnson.
Another critical point is how aligned with public opinion Sanderss policies are. If you cut through the rhetoric and the white noise, you find that most Americans support what are undeniably socialist programs, like Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare. These programs arent understood popularly as socialist, but thats what they are. Chomsky continues:
The other interesting aspect of Sanderss positions is that theyre quite strongly supported by the general public, and have been for a long time. Thats true on taxes. Its true on healthcare
His proposal for a national healthcare system, meaning the kind of system that just about every other developed country has, at half the per capita cost of the United States and comparable or better outcomes, thats considered very radical. But its been the position of the majority of the American population for a long time. So, you go back, say, to Reagan right now, for example, latest polls, about 60 percent of the population favor it
You go back earlier to the Reagan years, about 70 percent of the population thought that national healthcare should be in the Constitution, because its such an obvious right.
And yet were told, repeatedly, that Sanders is the outlier, the extremist. This is patently false, and the result of media-driven confusion about our history and the term socialism. The only radical movement in this country the last several decades has been led by the Republican Party, which has shifted our discourse so far to the right that what was once a bipartisan mainstream position is now radical by comparison.
https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/noam-chomsky-is-exactly-right-regarding-how-mainstream-bernies-policies-really-are-no-matter-how-much-the-gop-calls-him-a-socialist/
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided