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Bernie Sanders is only extreme by United States standards. But even there, he is gaining in popularity, Professor Robert Patman says.
Sanders, the frontrunner for the Democrat presidential nomination, is labelled a ‘‘socialist’’ and ‘‘extremist’’ by his opponents.
But by United Kingdom and German political standards, his plans are merely mainstream, Prof Patman, an international relations specialist, says.
And now Sanders appears to be shaking off those labels, extending his support beyond the youth vote as he proves willing to take a stronger stand than US President Donald Trump against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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Hey Professor Patman, I know I'm not some super well-educated professor like yourself but if Sanders is the nominee he will lose in a landslide. The democratic. Party will never recover. For the record Sanders is a communist and most Americans despise him.
Barack Obama was also warned about Vladimir Putin trying to influence American elections, and he chose to do nothing about it. In fact, his exact words were:
“There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America’s elections, there’s no evidence that that has happened in the past or that it will happen this time, and so I’d invite Mr. Trump to stop whining and make his case to get votes,”...Barack Obama, 18th Oct 2016
Try not to let your personal dislike of Trump to effect your vision of America, Mr Patman.
I'm not sure it is his hate of just Trump but more of capitalism and conservatism.
Checking out his university profile and YouTube channel gives a clear picture.
Wouldn't it be great if someone did a bias profile on our university researchers.
So much of the research is qualitative (Qualitative research is a scientific method of observation to gather non-numerical data, while focusing on meaning-making), which isn't much different from gathering some samples and making it mean whatever your bias decides, backed up by the bias of like minded people, of course.
The Washington Post and NY Times have been totally corrupted by postmodernist (Marxist) ideology. They predicted Clinton had an 85% chance of winning 2016 which proves that they are also totally disconnected from the US voter.
(https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/upshot/presidential-polls-forec...)
Most of the legacy media got it wrong because they live inside their own bubble, sharing each others 'breaking' news.
For a university Prof claiming expert status on US politics, to site such sources as credible, is astounding.
Sanders is an extremist and he would NOT be mainstream of British nor German politics. He is the equivalent of Corban or German SPD which won 15.8% in their European elections and are unashamedly Marxist.
Saying you don't like Putin means nothing. It most certainly does NOT stop you from being a Marxist.
Sanders will put the Dems into the political wilderness for decades and that process will spread around the world as the people reject globalist, UN centric, domestic policies. The revolt burst forth with Brexit, then Trump and now the socialist are retreating around the world.
That's why Robert has a worried look about him.
America needs a government to consider the 40% who are in poverty. Socialism is about building roads, hospitals, schools and paying for teachers, customs, police, universities, government, water and parks.
Jim, just because you think something, that does NOT make it true.
Here is the dictionary definition.
"a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole."
In NZ, we have the regulated version. The government has it's finger in very thing that happens in this country.
Now you might think that having "the community as a whole" determine how our society works is a good thing but you only need to look at every country that this theory has been applied, to see what the results are.
In every case it produces mass poverty controlled by a wealthy elite.
You might say China is an example but their prosperity has only been achieved by the exploitation of their workers, the environment and the jobs of the workers whose markets they sell into.
It was the hope of the WTO that this would produce the largest democracy in the world but it has not.
It has produced an other 'leader' for life.
Wake up Jim, before your dream turns into the inevitable nightmare.
Socialism is about "redistributing" (i.e. taking) wealth from those who have earned it, and giving it to those who have not, via government control, enforcement, and taxation.
The result makes all involved - except the the political class at the top, and their associated sycophants, who are always exempt from the "rules" - equally poor.
We can see this happening right now in New Zealand during lockdown.
Our socialist government has closed down almost all productive workers and businesses, yet continues to pay ALL government staff and associated entities (politicians, councils, universities etc.) a full wage, whether or not they do anything that is actually useful during this period, or are even able to work at all.
The rest of us have been unceremoniously dumped from our actual *productive* work and told to cope on a government handout.
One rule for us, another for them.
We're told by the politicians that no price is too high to save lives. Of course they'd say that - they're not paying the price at all! They're on full salary, with benefits!
There's nothing fair or honest about socialism, unless you consider a thief is fair in admitting what he does.
Anybody who advocates for nationalisation of banks and utilities, opposes international trade, wants to ban private charities, and speaks favourably of Cuba and Venezuela would seem to encapsulate the definition of extreme. More importantly, he's demonstrably wrong.
Even if he were able to somehow defeat Trump, it'd just be replacing one lunatic with another.
Poor Patman's views did not age well here. Bernie has just removed himself from candidacy.
Looks like the United States found socialism no more palatable than anyone else with a head on their shoulders and a knowledge of history.
