Sanders Wants The "Capitalist v. Democratic Socialist" Subject Debated.

[Motown_Johnny]

When he answered "no" to being asked if he was a Capitalist on MTP there was a reason for it. He has been winning this exact same fight for 35 years.

(R)s will call any (D) a "Socialist" so our best bet is to nominate someone who knows how to win that fight. I am sorry if Clinton supporters can't understand this, but it is true.

We will see round one of that fight tonight, but it won't be over for months. Maybe this time he will lose the fight, but this is his strategy for winning and to assume that it will fail before the fight has even begun is foolish.

Everyone looking for a candidate who is not the status quo has a real option this time around. Lets see how many take it.

[jfern]

1. He should point out that he has worked with business groups and Republicans

So while he's a democratic socialist, he's not opposed to working constructively with business groups and Republicans.

After he was re-elected in 1983, and voters swept in a more progressive City Council, Sanders gained a stronger foothold in City Hall. With the support of local Republicans and business leaders, he created the Community and Economic Development Office (CEDO) to carry out his vision for more affordable housing, more locally owned small businesses, greater community engagement in planning, and job development.

http://www.thenation.com/article/bernies-burlington-city-sustainable-future/

[stone space]

2. Democrats were beaten about the head and shoulders with gay marriage until...

...the day when they stopped running away and came out of the closet in favor of equality.

It's hard to fight back when you are busy running away.

And the fact that you are not fighting back lends credibility to the original notion, because...well...you aren't fighting back, and are likely taking quite a beating as a result.

It's a self-fulfilling prophesy.

The same principle applies here.

[wyldwolf]

3. It was debated in the 1930s.

[cpompilo]

4. This ain't the 1930s. Its the 2015s. Welcome to the 21st century.

[Indepatriot]

6. So were civil rights.

[Vattel]

5. I wish he would clarify his views. I support him, but I am not sure

exactly what his brand of socialism is. I know it is democratic and that he favors more democratic control of the economic system, including some state-owned resources and some worker-owned businesses with workplace democracy, but beyond that things get fuzzy for me.

[pinebox]

8. Well if you want to know

then look at Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, France, etc. It's all right there.

[Rose Siding]

10. Except he said flat out he isn't a capitalist

He didn't qualify it so that graphic doesn't really clarify it.

[Cali_Democrat]

12. Then he should have said that!

Those words would make sense to a lot of Americans.

Sanders screwed up.

[Vattel]

15. So he is a capitalist to some degree. Okay, but to what degree?

What exactly is involved in running the economy democratically to meet human needs? Doesn't the public need control over the means of production to run an economy? And how is such control consistent with private enterprise? I still have more questions than answers.

[KittyWampus]

7. Ben & Jerry are "capitalists". So to paint capitalists as villains is stupid.

[mmonk]

16. Entrepreneurship isn't unfettered capitalism.

[Gothmog]

9. Why Bernie Sanders isn’t going to be president, in five words

The Washington Post has a good article on this https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/10/12/why-bernie-sanders-isnt-going-to-be-president-in-5-words/

The simple political fact is that if Sanders did ever manage to win the Democratic presidential nomination — a long shot but far from a no shot at this point — Republicans would simply clip Sanders's answer to Todd above and put it in a 30-second TV ad. That would, almost certainly, be the end of Sanders's viability in a general election.

Americans might be increasingly aware of the economic inequality in the country and increasingly suspicious of so-called vulture capitalism — all of which has helped fuel Sanders's rise. But we are not electing someone who is an avowed socialist to the nation's top political job. Just ain't happening.

[phantom power]

11. Sanders gets it.

You'd think, after 40 years of trying to appease the conservative movement by running away from democratic socialism and having the conservatives just keep pushing the Overton Window farther and farther to the right, that the Democrats would finally realize that they have to stop running.

Sanders understands that, and a few others like Senator Warren. I hope the rest of them eventually catch up, while we still have a country left to save.

[AgingAmerican]

14. Nobody cares about that label

nt