Bernie and Socialism: Checkmating the Lesser Evil at Last?

THE DUOPOLY WATCH | Steven Jonas, MD, MPH

Hello everyone. 

I wrote this column before it became absolutely clear that Bernie would be formally endorsing Hillary, before the Convention.  (Trump-fright is powerful stuff.)  Plus, the Clinton wing did give way on certain platform provisions --- except whoever looks at campaign platforms.  If anyone ever looked at the Republican document --- and in the past I have, in some detail --- no one other than the 1% and rabid religious-righters would ever vote for them.  

A consistent Democratic mistake over the years has been to avoid going hammer and tong against the Repub. platform in every Presidential election, firmly tying the nominee to it.)  Anyway, Hillary is the likely Democratic nominee, but given what is going on with the email scandal and what appears to be some lying by her about the subject, hey, you never know.  And so, here's a review of Bernie and socialism.

The non-legal-indictment/indictment-in-the-court-of-public-opinion by holdover Republican FBI Director William Comey may, or may not, have put Hillary’s nomination into question once again.  Bernie continues to say “I’ll vote for her,” but continues not to endorse her.  Thus he is surely indicating that he thinks given a) what the email mess does in fact say about her judgement and political acumen, and b) regardless of what it does and does not say about both her judgement and her understanding of and regard for the law, she may indeed not have the Democratic nomination all locked up.  Surely, some of the super-delegates must be beginning to have second thoughts.  And those who are terrified at the thought of a “President Trump,” must be particularly terrified.  Because, damaged as she now has been by Comey, she could lose it.

While Bernie Sanders did seem determined to go to the Convention with his delegates in hand, he has now formally endorsed Hillary Clinton.  But who knows?  Many Bernie-delegates either can’t stand Clinton or think that he has become such damaged goods that she might lose even to Trump.  (And if Ryan replaces Trump, watch out!)  As I said, who knows?  Stranger things have happened in U.S. political history (see, for example, the election of 1876).  But whether or not HRC is somehow derailed, there is the matter of the Bernie-or-busters, the already raging “lesser of the evils” argument, and what the not-much-of-a-fan-of-Hillary-but-thoroughly-revolted-by-Trump voter should do.  

If HRC is the nominee, as I have said for quite some time, the Repubs. and Trump will be running on three words: emails; Benghazi, and Clinton.  If it were somehow to be Bernie, the red-baiting scream machine would be turned up to a level not heard since the height of the McCarthy era.  Thus even now it would seem to be a good time to again examine the question of Bernie, socialism and the relationship between them.  Just in case. 

A simple definition of “socialism” is that it is an economic system in which the means of production, distribution, and exchange are in the hands of the working class (in one manner or another) and that the workers hold state power (by one means or another).  Historically, “democratic socialism” has referred to a politico-economic socialist system that has been achieved, in one way or another, through the democratic process, which is then retained in some form or another.  The latter is also known as the “parliamentary road to socialism.”  “Social democracy,” or the other hand, does not have a distinct definition, other than making “democracy” (however you want to define that, within the context of capitalism) “social,” that is “work better for a majority of the population.”  

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Source: The Greanville Post