In Front of 10,000 in Madison, Bernie Sanders Calls for Wealth Redistribution

[marmar]

from In These Times:


In Front of 10,000 in Madison, Bernie Sanders Calls for Wealth Redistribution
[font size="3"]“Our job is to redistribute wealth back into the hands of working families.”[/font]

BY DAVID GOODNER


MADISON—Anyone on the Left who says Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders isn’t a real independent or socialist missed the speech he gave in Madison last night, when he called on 10,000 supporters to help build a mass social movement powerful enough to redistribute the wealth from the rich to the poor.

Forget about Bernie’s catchphrases about the “billionaire class,” the “oligarchy” and how no president can fight them and win without an “organized grassroots movement” strong enough to make a “political revolution.” Those powerful words are all well and good, and they are having a real impact on the public debate.

So are Bernie’s calls to implement an agenda that reads like a progressive wish list: bust up big banks, overturn Citizens United, raise the minimum wage, paid medical/family and vacation leave, equal pay for women, more taxes on the super-rich and big corporations, tuition-free university education, Medicare-For-All, single-payer health care, public campaign financing, an end to climate change, yadda yadda yadda, you get the idea. The Madison crowd collectively swooned upon hearing such ideas.

But when was the last time you actually heard a presidential candidate openly call for “wealth redistribution”? Forget descriptions of “income inequality”—he wants wealth redistribution.

Okay, so Bernie’s call didn’t exactly include bold proposals for nationalization of the economy or collectivizing agriculture. Still, the kind of boldly progressive rhetoric Bernie was using last night showed just how incredibly honest and unapologetically to the left he is. Sanders is quickly becoming the vessel for mass social movements that the “Yes We Can” Obama campaign never truly was. ...................(more)

http://inthesetimes.com/article/18136/bernie-sanders-madison

[guillaumeb]

1. Great post marmar.

The message needs to be repeated over and over. To really bring the country back it is NECESSARY to return to the 91% top tax rate of the Eisenhower era.

I have been an "In These Times" subscriber since the 1970's. A great, Chicago based magazine that deserves a much wider audience.

[msongs]

2. we already have wealth redistribution...from the bottom to the top 1% nt

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. sadly yes

[snagglepuss]

4. seriously that should be a bumper sticker or

an actual campaign slogan. absolutely on the mark.