On October 18, 2015, Jenna LeFever writes on ReverbPress:
BERNIE SANDERS’ STANCES ARE POPULAR AMONG THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS, BUT SOMETHING IS GETTING LOST IN TRANSLATION
During the Democratic debates, all candidates had their stumbles and their high moments. For former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, she had her high moment when talking about paid family leave and working mothers, but she stumbled when trying to explain what she planned to do about the big banks and Wall Street.
And Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders had his big moments when he talked about big banks and Wall Street and the issue of racial injustice, but his greatest stumble came on the very first question of the debate when asked about being a Democratic Socialist. When CNN’s Anderson Cooper laid that question down I thought to myself, “Here we go, lay it on them, Bernie! Explain to the dumbasses in the room what Democratic Socialism is.”
But he didn’t. And it was an enormously important missed opportunity for Sen. Sanders.
Here’s what Sen. Sanders said:
COOPER: Senator Sanders. A Gallup poll says half the country would not put a socialist in the White House. You call yourself a democratic socialist. How can any kind of socialist win a general election in the United States?
SANDERS: Well, we’re gonna win because first, we’re gonna explain what democratic socialism is.
And what democratic socialism is about is saying that it is immoral and wrong that the top one-tenth of 1 percent in this country own almost 90 percent — almost — own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. That it is wrong, today, in a rigged economy, that 57 percent of all new income is going to the top 1 percent.
That when you look around the world, you see every other major country providing health care to all people as a right, except the United States. You see every other major country saying to moms that, when you have a baby, we’re not gonna separate you from your newborn baby, because we are going to have — we are gonna have medical and family paid leave, like every other country on Earth.
Those are some of the principles that I believe in, and I think we should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway, and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people.
If you’re a political buff, the answer seems to be in plain English. If you’re what journalists call “the lowest common denominator” Sanders’ answer, which he gives repeatedly, is lacking. Journalists are taught to write to the LCD in a way that the most intelligent person will still be entertained, but a person a lower intelligence on the subject will be able to understand. My suggestion for Bernie Sandersis to learn how to speak to the LCD.
So, what do the lowest common denominators in this country need to hear in a way that they will hear it? I guess I’ll have to do some role-playing because this is what I would say if I were a wild-haired Senator from Vermont explaining socialism to a country that has been groomed to fear the term:
“Democratic Socialism is a system of government that works for all people in a nation and not just the wealthy and large corporations who can afford to buy politicians and votes that serve their self-interests. Our current political system has many socialist programs that I think we can all agree are good programs; police and fire, infrastructure, the military, medicare, social security, and public schooling. I want to expand upon these popular programs and offer every single American health care as a fundamental right, four years of higher education from public colleges and universities and strengthen families through subsidized child care and the paid family leave act.
As a nation, we pay extraordinarily more money out-of-pocket than socialist nations pay in taxes for privatized services. Why? Americans could keep the money they shell out for private insurance, for tuition, for child care and spend it in the economy or save it for retirement. And they could keep that money because the costs would be spread out in a more equalized tax system. I believe this is our only pathway to success.
The middle class is the driver of the economy and the middle class is shrinking, while the wealth at the top balloons this kind of wealth disparity is not conducive to a successful economy, and for a nation as great as ours, that’s a shame.
And while I understand when people hear socialism they think I don’t believe in the free market, I believe in capitalism for the average American business owner. I am against vulture capitalism that pours money into our political system that robs millions of Americans of their tax dollars.
I would win the election by convincing Americans their government can work for them and serve their interests once more.”
Okay, so obviously I’m not a polished politician, but the point I’m trying to make is when Sanders is talking in mixed company (i.e. ignorant and intelligent people) he needs to stop pulling stats from Europe, he needs to stop using numbers, he needs to frame the conversation in a way most Americans can relate to — even to those on the right.
To politically ignorant people, far-away nations like Denmark and Scandanavia, countries they’ve never seen with their own eyes, are abstracts. Even large numbers seem harder for people to digest. For example, one of my best friends is what you would consider a political LCD and when I explain to her 90 percent of new income is going to the top one percent, her eyes glaze over and she says “they earned that money, why should it be taxed more?” The number is too abstract for her to wrap her head around. At the very least Sanders needs to put “90 percent” into the context of a dollar amount.
Sanders recently visited Real Time with Bill Maher where Maher attempted to drag out a better answer to help Sanders explain what democratic socialism is, and once again, he pulled out European countries as examples and used numbers but his answers were better because he had more time to explain these things. Because those of us who understand what Sanders is saying, love him, but he needs to let the less-savvy in on his message as well.
If Sanders’ being a socialist is one of the largest mitigating factors to denying him the presidency, then it’s imperative he learns how to plead his case better. The more he fails to explain himself in terms everyone can relate to, and as Sanders told Maher the majority of Americans do agree with his programs, then it gives Clinton the advantage to campaign as a progressive capitalist. It gives the right-wing the easy attack by comparing Sanders to the German dictator Adolf Hitler, or someone who wants to grow government in a way that works against people, which is simply untrue.
If Sanders can polish his answer to this question, he could be unstoppable. He’s already raking in donations nearly equal to Clinton, polling-wise he’s in a better position than Barack Obama was in 2007, and he already broke Obama’s record by receiving more than 1.4 million campaign contributions. Sanders can win despite what the talking heads say, but he needs to examine his explanations of his stances a bit more thoroughly.
WATCH SANDERS TALK ABOUT SOCIALISM ON MAHER’S SHOW.
“Socialism is a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates the means of production, distribution and exchange should be OWNED or regulated by the community as a whole”
This essentially means the abolition of private property, owned by individuals. Of course Bernie Sanders nor anyone else campaigning for the presidency is advocating the abolition of private property; regulation yes, in order to look out for each other.
To deal with critics of American socialism, Bernie Sanders should acknowledge that he does not advocate the abolition of private property in the means of production, the very core definition of socialism, but wants economic and social policies that will empower EVERY child, woman, and man to acquire significant wealth-creating, income-producing capital asset ownership simultaneously with the growth of the economy, and prevent the further concentration of capital ownership among the tiny minority who now OWNS America and wields tremendous political power, as a result.
