2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumVP Joe Biden: We Don't Need Socialism
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/266483-biden-we-dont-need-socialismVice President Biden on Wednesday offered criticism of "socialism" during a speech abroad, seemingly a shot at Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist and Democratic candidate for president.
Biden made the remark in a keynote address at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, where he called for "a more progressive tax code" and a strengthening of the middle class.
"We need a more progressive tax code -- not confiscatory policy. Not socialism. A tax code." -VP Biden
arcane1
(38,613 posts)roguevalley
(40,656 posts)the nose, thank old Uncle Joe from Scranton. If I never hear that bullshit again, it will be too soon. Sounds to me that he has warmed up to the idea that they will toss hillary and install him so he's softening up bernie he thinks.
Autumn
(45,114 posts)I can't wait till Colorado's caucus is done.
question everything
(47,488 posts)to "steal" votes from Hillary.
Autumn
(45,114 posts)Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)is too commie for the corporate dems?
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)niyad
(113,434 posts)nc4bo
(17,651 posts)I will not dare.
m-lekktor
(3,675 posts)Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)ecstatic
(32,713 posts)(and him) back in 2012. Up until now, VP Biden seemed to like Bernie.
SunSeeker
(51,574 posts)Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)I won't be voting for either, any more, ever. A weight has been lifted.
Obviously the VP doesn't have to worry about affording healthcare, or having money to retire, or supporting a family on minimum wage.
John Poet
(2,510 posts)Reter
(2,188 posts)He's going to jump in if she were to drop out.
Gothmog
(145,355 posts)In context, this comment does not appear to be an attack on Sanders http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/20/politics/joe-biden-davos-socialism/
"We need -- not just in my country, but in other countries -- a more progressive tax code. Not confiscatory policy, not socialism, a tax code," Biden said. "Everybody pays proportionally a fair share. This is not meant to penalize everybody."
Vice President Biden ✔ @VP
"We need a more progressive tax code -- not confiscatory policy. Not socialism. A tax code." -VP Biden #wef16
11:42 AM - 20 Jan 2016
The phrase -- according to the vice president's office, not a specific reference to Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who identifies as a democratic socialist but caucuses with Democrats -- was embedded in a larger speech that hit some of Biden's most frequently touted policies: economic fairness, boosting the middle class and encouraging corporate responsibility.
ericson00
(2,707 posts)yeeuppp.
Skwmom
(12,685 posts)What a coincidence. rofl: :
Skwmom
(12,685 posts)bigwillq
(72,790 posts)But he's entitled to his opinion.
AOR
(692 posts)Why Socialism ? ... by Albert Einstein
http://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism
Albert Einstein is the world-famous physicist. This article was originally published in the first issue of Monthly Review (May 1949). It was subsequently published in May 1998 to commemorate the first issue of MRs fiftieth year.
(Snips)...
" Man is, at one and the same time, a solitary being and a social being. As a solitary being, he attempts to protect his own existence and that of those who are closest to him, to satisfy his personal desires, and to develop his innate abilities. As a social being, he seeks to gain the recognition and affection of his fellow human beings, to share in their pleasures, to comfort them in their sorrows, and to improve their conditions of life. Only the existence of these varied, frequently conflicting, strivings accounts for the special character of a man, and their specific combination determines the extent to which an individual can achieve an inner equilibrium and can contribute to the well-being of society. It is quite possible that the relative strength of these two drives is, in the main, fixed by inheritance. But the personality that finally emerges is largely formed by the environment in which a man happens to find himself during his development, by the structure of the society in which he grows up, by the tradition of that society, and by its appraisal of particular types of behavior. The abstract concept society means to the individual human being the sum total of his direct and indirect relations to his contemporaries and to all the people of earlier generations. The individual is able to think, feel, strive, and work by himself; but he depends so much upon societyin his physical, intellectual, and emotional existencethat it is impossible to think of him, or to understand him, outside the framework of society. It is society which provides man with food, clothing, a home, the tools of work, language, the forms of thought, and most of the content of thought; his life is made possible through the labor and the accomplishments of the many millions past and present who are all hidden behind the small word society.
" I have now reached the point where I may indicate briefly what to me constitutes the essence of the crisis of our time. It concerns the relationship of the individual to society. The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society. But he does not experience this dependence as a positive asset, as an organic tie, as a protective force, but rather as a threat to his natural rights, or even to his economic existence. Moreover, his position in society is such that the egotistical drives of his make-up are constantly being accentuated, while his social drives, which are by nature weaker, progressively deteriorate. All human beings, whatever their position in society, are suffering from this process of deterioration. Unknowingly prisoners of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naive, simple, and unsophisticated enjoyment of life. Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society. "
" The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labornot by force, but on the whole in faithful compliance with legally established rules. In this respect, it is important to realize that the means of productionthat is to say, the entire productive capacity that is needed for producing consumer goods as well as additional capital goodsmay legally be, and for the most part are, the private property of individuals. "
" Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights. "