Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Front-Runner Sanders Gets It All Wrong: Opinion
Inside-Sources
By InsideSources.com
Published 4 years ago on
February 20, 2020

Share

It’s hard for me to believe that Donald Trump is president. Really hard. Equally hard for me to believe that Bernie Sanders is the Democratic front-runner, especially after the Las Vegas debate.
I can take Sanders’ passion, although it’s so consuming it gets to be frightening. I can take his calling himself a democratic socialist, although I don’t know to what extent his form of socialism pits him against capitalism. Enough, I fear.


Llewellyn King
InsideSources.com

Opinion
Some of what Sanders had to say in Las Vegas was downright risible, or has been tried and failed, or, worse, would set in place a series of negative dynamics, damaging the country in many ways without bringing about any of the gains he wishes to achieve. Listening to him, I think, “This donkey wants his feedbag.”
In his way, Sanders is as committed to conspiracy theories as is Trump. Sanders sees vast, secretive forces in fossil fuel companies, lobbyists, bankers and billionaires as being united in a scheme to keep the rest of us poor and ill-served by government.

Three of His Big Fallacies

Here are three of his big fallacies:
1. Companies would be better if they were partly owned by the workers. This is real socialism and it hasn’t worked when it’s been tried.
Sanders would be well-advised to read up on the history of the cooperative movement in Britain. The very first casualty would be innovation because worker governance isn’t risk-taking.
I say this having been very familiar with the British coop movement and having headed a trade union local, the Newspaper Guild, in Washington. Collective decision making is not creative, risk-taking or forward-looking.
2. The technology of fracking to extract oil and natural gas from tight rock formations should be stopped in order to combat global warming. That would deal the economy a body blow while doing nothing for global warming.
Carbon emissions from fossil fuels are coming down, and on the horizon is the technology of carbon capture, utilization and storage, and other technological fixes for carbon emissions.
Technology has enabled fracking, and technology — not cessation — will clean up emissions.
3. The current health care mess should be replaced root-and-branch by a national health system. That we need a stabilizing public option in health care is more apparent daily. But health reform needs to be introduced like good medicine, prudently with the dosage corrected in relation to the progress of the patient.
Sanders’ approach to most issues can be summed up by what author H.G. Wells, a socialist, said of playwright G.B. Shaw’s ideas. He said the trouble with Shaw, also a socialist, was that Shaw wanted to cut down the trees to erect metal sunshades. Quite so.

The Long-Term Evil of Money

In Las Vegas, Sanders was out to cut down every tree he could see. These included what is part of the American Dream: Anyone with pluck and hard work can improve their situation, and maybe grow rich.
Sanders’ assault of Mike Bloomberg was that Bloomberg didn’t accept some mythical belief that money is inherently bad and that those who’ve made a lot of it are evil and constantly conspiring to keep the rest of us in penury — at least those who earn up to the Senate salary of $174,000 a year.
The long-term evil of money isn’t in the generation that makes it, but in the families that will inherit it down through the generations, creating an oligarchy the likes of which we haven’t seen since the fall of the serf-exploiting Russian nobility.
Sanders has another weakness, one shared with Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden and Amy Klobuchar: It was hugely apparent that he’s never run anything more than his Senate office.
Someone should take Sanders on one side and tell him about failed experiments in worker ownership, the value of evolution over revolution, and that every American would like to be rich.
About the Author 
Llewellyn King is executive producer and host of “White House Chronicle” on PBS. His email is llewellynking1@gmail.com. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
[activecampaign form=31]

DON'T MISS

When Newsom Gives His State of the State, He Should Be Candid About California’s Economy

DON'T MISS

CA’s Liberal Government Has a Long History of Caving to Special Interests

DON'T MISS

Newsom, Legislators Opt for Gimmicks and Wishful Thinking to Close California’s Budget Deficit

DON'T MISS

Courage to Embrace Change: El Rio Reyes Conservation Trust Boldly Rebrands as Kings River Land Trust

DON'T MISS

Committed to Politics or Committed to Fresno’s Children?

DON'T MISS

Repealing Prop. 47 is a Misguided Battle Cry. It Won’t Make California Safer.

DON'T MISS

Misty Her Might Be Best Superintendent Candidate. But Fresno Unified Still Needs a Statewide Search.

DON'T MISS

How California’s Prized Solution for Methane Gas Is Backfiring on Farmers

DON'T MISS

Many Californians Rely on This Farmers Market Program. Newsom Wants to Cut It

DON'T MISS

Carbon Capture Storage Is Key to California’s Economy & Energy Future

No data was found

Facebook News Tab Will Soon Be Unavailable as Meta Scales Back News and Political Content

3 hours ago

Stock Market Today: Wall Street Rises to More Records to Close Out Its Latest Winning Month

4 hours ago

A Fresno County First: Kerman Council Passes Amended Gaza Cease-Fire Resolution

4 hours ago

UN Top Court Orders Israel to Open More Land Crossings for Aid into Gaza

4 hours ago

How Involved Is Southern California Consulting Firm in FUSD Executive Dealings?

4 hours ago

Biden’s Fundraiser with Obama and Clinton Nets a Record $25 Million, His Campaign Says

5 hours ago

Fresno Unified’s Self-Protection Racket Is Hurting Our Kids

5 hours ago

Rockin’ Out or Laughing, the Valley Has Its Pick of Weekend Events

6 hours ago

Ex-Correctional Officer at Women’s Prison in California Sentenced for Sexually Abusing Inmates

8 hours ago

Caitlin Clark and Iowa Draw Nearly 5 Million Viewers for Second-Round NCAA Win

8 hours ago

PGA HOPE at Riverside Golf Course Introduces Military Veterans to the Game

PGA HOPE, now underway at Fresno’s Riverside Golf Course, is designed to introduce golf to veterans and active duty military members t...

2 hours ago

PGA HOPE at Fresno's Riverside Golf Course
2 hours ago

PGA HOPE at Riverside Golf Course Introduces Military Veterans to the Game

3 hours ago

Cronenworth’s Big Hit Helps Lift the Padres to a 6-4 Win Over Melvin’s Giants

3 hours ago

Shohei Ohtani Reaches 3 Times in Home Debut as the Dodgers Rout the Cardinals 7-1

3 hours ago

Facebook News Tab Will Soon Be Unavailable as Meta Scales Back News and Political Content

4 hours ago

Stock Market Today: Wall Street Rises to More Records to Close Out Its Latest Winning Month

4 hours ago

A Fresno County First: Kerman Council Passes Amended Gaza Cease-Fire Resolution

4 hours ago

UN Top Court Orders Israel to Open More Land Crossings for Aid into Gaza

4 hours ago

How Involved Is Southern California Consulting Firm in FUSD Executive Dealings?

MENU

CONNECT WITH US

Search

Send this to a friend