dale blanker wrote:The Annoyed Man wrote:Bernie Sanders is addressing a group of blue collar workers. He explains his manifesto: “Under democratic socialism, if I have two houses, I give you one. If I have two cars, I give you one. If I have two boats, I give you one.”
One of the workers asks “Does that mean if you have two shirts, you give me one.”
“No!”
“Why not?”
“Because I have two shirts,” Sanders explains.
Ok, I've heard him talk many times about big banks, campaign finance, and health care but missed hearing the quotes you make above. I suspect he's a bit radical but did not realize he was that bad.
What is your source of when and where he actually said what you have quoted?
Dale, Dale, Dale............this is a joke! Does your lack of a sense of humor indicate you're a Sanders supporter?
For what it is worth, my cousin Tommy "the Commie" knows Sanders personally VERY well. Tom was on the Burlington, VT city council when Sanders was Mayor (1981-1989). After that, Tom served a couple of terms as a legislator in the Vermont state House, and Sanders was a big reason he got elected. Tom was Sanders' campaign manager when he ran for the U.S. House (1991-2007), and has remained in touch with Sanders during his senatorial career (2007 to the present). Sanders has been my cousin Tom's political mentor virtually his entire adult life. I would say that Tom knows Sanders better than anybody on this board. Mind you, what Tom tells me about Sanders (as if it were all good stuff) marks Sanders as a VERY radical person......just like my cousin Tom is a radical person. Vermont has not
always been a progressive state. It got that way from radicals out of New York and Massachussetts moving up there for "the rural life" (a danger that could happen to Texas, if we're not careful). Tom moved to Vermont from Baltimore - where he was a "community organizer". Sanders moved to Vermont from New York - where he was a "community organizer".
Please understand, I
love my cousin Tom. He's a
super nice guy, and I get along with him very well. He tells me that
Sanders is a super nice guy. But I don't vote for politicians because they are super nice. I vote based on policies, which is why I'm a racist.........because I voted against Obama for policy reasons both times. (That's another political joke, ok?) Tom is, or was, a gun owner. He kept a .357 magnum by his bedside because he lived in a terrible Baltimore neighborhood.......yeah, the same neighborhood he "community organized" to make it as bad as it was. Sanders was repeatedly re-elected as a representative, and then a senator, from a constitutional carry state where gun ownership is common and not even questioned. But now that Sanders is running for POTUS, he's been making gun-control noises as he panders to the democrat party base. I'd be willing to bet that Tom (I haven't spoken to him since before Sanders announced his candidacy) has adopted more of a "guns for me, but not for thee" point of view, in line with Sanders'. Both would probably say it is fine to keep a revolver or shotgun in the home for self-defense, but nobody needs an AR15 or a Glock, and NOBODY who doesn't have a LEO badge of permission should be walking around with a gun........because progressivism is all about "granting permissions" instead of "inalienable rights".
Tom (and Sanders as well if Tom is to be believed) is a nice guy. They are just
wrong as hades. The statist, tightly regulated and limited economy, in which industry is privately owned but gov't controlled, has always resulted in a decrease of wealth for all but the oligarchs, and a decrease in personal liberty. It reduces entrepreneurialism by burdening new businesses in a way that makes it way too hard to succeed (opening up new markets is tough enough without gov't hamstringing them), increasing the risks, while supporting a tax code that encourages existing large corporations to shift the tax burden onto the voters. Sanders wants to punish financial institutions for their "excesses" (as defined by a socialist), without removing gov't protections of those institutions to protect us taxpayers from their failures. I'm not talking about FDIC, I'm talking about the "too big to fail" mentality of big gov't progressives. Progressive gov't picks winners, crushes their competition, penalizes the successful, and rewards the shiftless. We've
already got enough of that, but Sanders - if his rhetoric is to be believed - wants MORE of it. I don't know about you, but when Obama promised to fundamentally transform America, I believed him. EVERBYDOY should have believed him, because he did just that........just not the way that some had hoped. I believed him, the same way I believe a jihadist when he says he wants to kill people like me. When Sanders says he wants to go even more "progressive" than Obama, I BELIEVE HIM. You should too.
The point of my joke was the hypocrisy of progressives - who are all about giving away OPM (other people's money), but find it difficult to share what is
actually theirs. They talk about giving away what they don't have. They SAY "I'm not a millionaire, but if I were, I'd give half of it to you", but they DO "heck no, I actually
have a million dollars, go get your own!". In the joke, Sanders talks about giving away what he doesn't have (a second house, a second car, a second boat), but won't part with what he
does have (a second shirt).
I'll give Bernie Sanders this: Between the current president, Hillary Clinton, and himself, he's the only progressive who hasn't used his office to make himself into a millionaire. So, do I believe he is
sincere in his progressive beliefs unlike either Obama or Clinton, who only see progressivism as a way to gain political power so that they can use it to enrichen themselves? Sure. I think he is an
honest progressive.....meaning that he honestly believes it is the best way to do things, and to date has avoided making himself richer than Croesus in the process.....which also means that he is on the same road to hades which is paved with the bones of the well-intentioned. But I don't want to get dragged into a fiscal hades, where individual liberty has to be subsumed to "the greater good" by gov't fiat.
Do you see what you did? You turned a simple joke into one of my patented rants.
