Sen. Bernie Sanders told the Republican Party today that if they continue to push austerity, they will suffer defeat just like Nicolas Sarkozy did.
In a statement about Sunday’s elections in Europe, Sanders said,
In the United States and around the world, the middle class is in steep decline while the wealthy and large corporations are doing phenomenally well. The message sent by voters in France and other European countries, which I believe will be echoed here in the United States, is that the wealthy and large corporations are going to have to experience some austerity also and that that burden cannot solely fall on working families.
In the United States, where corporate profits are soaring and the gap between the rich and everybody else is growing wider, we must end corporate tax loopholes and start making the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes. At the same time, we must protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Austerity, yes, but for millionaires and billionaires, not the working families of this country.
Sen. Sanders has it nailed. The American people don’t like extremism. Since the 2010 elections, Republicans have been pushing fiscal extremism, and the bill is about to come due in 2012. The Republican Party is out of step with what most Americans really want. They want their Social Security and Medicare left the way they are. They want taxes to be raised at least a little bit on those who can afford it the most, and they want the social safety net to be strong and left in place.
The dirty little secret about the United States is that we love our socialism. A 2011 joint Duke and Harvard study found that, “92% of the respondents believed in the socialistic economic wealth distribution of Sweden.”
It’s time to stop fighting it and just come out of the closet, and the group I’m talking about is the American public and the love they’re denying is their love of socialism. Now I know that there are few words in America more toxic than socialist, and these days big government spending is about as popular as Casey Anthony at a Chucky Cheese. Yes, Americans say they hate socialism but when it comes to Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, corporate welfare, bailouts, and farm subsidies, what we really say to socialism is I can’t quit you.
Americans don’t want less spending on healthcare, by almost 2 to 1 they want more. Only 7% of Americans are willing to do away with either Social Security or Medicare, and even 62% of tea party members say those programs are worth the cost, yet 91% say they want smaller government with fewer services.
Republicans conned themselves into the believing that their 2010 off year mid-term election victory represented the will of the people, but when polling is examined two consistent points always emerge when Americans are asked about the deficit and spending. A majority will say that they want to cut the deficit, and that same majority will also tell you that they do not want any cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Americans love their socialism and they have a decades long tradition of punishing any party or candidate that threatens to take it away. Republicans are threatening more loudly than they ever have before to take away America’s beloved socialistic programs, and as Bernie Sanders pointed out following Sarkozy down the austerity path will lead them to the same result as the now former French president.
If austerity is the Republican dream, rejection and defeat will be their reality.


Marcus Jay Shapiro Green Party
May. 7th, 2012 at 9:00 pm
Socialism would work in the United States! It already does. The rich are so rich that it would take over 100 years for millionaires and billionaires to become 100,000aires…
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buckeyewill
May. 7th, 2012 at 9:37 pm
WE DON’T USE THAT WORD!!!!
We say “government action”
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radicalreality
May. 7th, 2012 at 10:26 pm
Yes Frank Luntz, just as Capitalism is “Economic Freedom”
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Shiva (Moderator)
May. 7th, 2012 at 9:46 pm
This is the deal kids. We have Wall Street, international banks, American, Russian and Mexican billionaire buying up Greek and other countrys debt and then demanding the payback. The entire thing across the globe is about citizens giving up money to give to the rich. This is a consolidated movement and its war. Want top vote for Boehner and group? You vote against yourself.
Europe is starting to fight back. We already have as well.
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zumpie
May. 7th, 2012 at 10:18 pm
What’s funny is that Clueless Mitty Rich just today accused the Prez of trying to move us to be like Europe and pointed out how poorly they’re doing over there.
Ummm, yeah Mittens, because of all those austerity measures THEY’RE in a double dip recession that we’re managing (so far) to avoid. Not to mention, that isn’t what Obama is steering us towards.
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Karen Brown
May. 7th, 2012 at 10:28 pm
Yeah, that old tactic of ‘look at Europe, how bad they are doing. Socialism!’ is really not going to play when they’re doing Austerity measures and, yeah, it got worse…. Geez, what will they try if they can’t do their knee jerk fallback cliches?
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Peter
May. 8th, 2012 at 4:03 am
Ironically, the GOP loves War and building weapons but the military is the highest funded Socialist Program in the U.S.A.
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RailroadMike
May. 8th, 2012 at 4:08 am
Not only vote the these people out for attempting to destroy our social programs but put in the slammer for treason for signing the Norquist pledge. They work for the America people not a payed lobbiest!
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Daddycool
May. 8th, 2012 at 6:23 am
I agree with you RR Mike. I’m not sure if it’s treason, but it just might be! It’s worth looking into! Anbody who signed that pledge (and that goes for a handful of DINOs too) is at the VERY LEAST, abandoning their first and foremost pledge. The one they took when they were sworn into office.
As far as socialism, It won’t work here in the US right now. Because here, unlike most of Europe, our govt. no longer represents the people. It now exists almost exclusively to serve corporate interests. (Which BTW is 100% counter to the way the founders set it up.)
We have no control of our own govt. and I for one don’t want somebody else’s govt. in charge of the things that we all need. The govt has to be OURS first before we hand them too much responsibility. If we are to give the gov.more and more control, … it has to be GOVT FOR AND BY THE PEOPLE.
Otherwise forget it! It could be a real nightmare!
It’s bad enough already since the govt. belongs to corporations … because guess who already controls most of the things we need?? That’s right! Corporations control the goods and services just about every American needs. AND they control our govt. too !! That’s a really bad situation to be in! Adding more socialism now just empowers the corps even more.
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RailroadMike
May. 8th, 2012 at 5:09 pm
Most of these clowns never served in the military or they wouldnt have taken the oath. When you enter the military after taken the oathe to the US Constitution. You are unstructed taking any other oaths or pledges other the US Constitution is treason and grounds for court marshall under the military code of conduct.
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Daddycool
May. 8th, 2012 at 6:24 am
Step 1: EDUCATE THE PEOPLE of America! (Backward ass country fu**s need not apply.) That will be the end of Fox “News”.
Step 2: Take back control of our own govt. so that the country once again belongs to the people.
Step 3: Then we can start to think about installing some more Euro style socialism here in OUR country after people finally realize what their own best interests are.
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j
May. 8th, 2012 at 8:36 am
Before the right goes crazy talking about socialism in France, the new president goes by the name of his party ‘socialist’ which does not mean what Americans think it means – it means a fair deal for all of society, it does not have anything to do with ‘communism’ but I am sure the repubs will try to spin this in a really nasty way.
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Shiva (Moderator)
May. 8th, 2012 at 8:42 am
you are right of course. France displays none of the characteristics of socialism. Just because you have universal healthcare does not make you socialist. That’s something that really gets my goat here, people saying we would be a socialist nation if we had universal health care. Nothing could be further from the truth
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Johnee
May. 8th, 2012 at 8:49 am
Here. Here.
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Johnee
May. 8th, 2012 at 8:45 am
Americans want to have a strong private sector with regulatory checks and balances – As well as maintaining certain public and social programs. Hello! This to a large degree is what Northern Europe has done, and it’s one of the best places to live in the world.
Most Americans simply don’t look at common sense regulations and certain public programs as “big government”. They know the free market is essential to our exceptionalism, but it’s not the answer to EVERYTHING under the sun.
Pure Randian capitalism doesn’t work, and Pure socialism doesn’t work. The hybrid does.
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Regan Burke
May. 8th, 2012 at 3:31 pm
Bernie Sanders needs to mind his own state. Corporations are chopping off the tops of mountains there to build wind turbines that have already been proven to be ineffective in other states — making promises they know are lies and reaping the benefit of government tax breaks. And Bernie has done nothing to stop it – nothing to address the fate of Vermont farmers, pristine wilderness, ecological upheavals, nothing to stop the corporations in Vermont do exactly what he is wailing about.
Watch the hero worship here.
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Shiva (Moderator)
May. 8th, 2012 at 4:43 pm
Wind turbines are effective. They are building them in my area like crazy
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motorfingaz
May. 9th, 2012 at 12:32 am
vote the republican crime syndicate out of govt 2012
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d nova
May. 16th, 2012 at 4:20 am
the real reason for the 2010 election result is dems sat it out. just look at the numbers and you’ll see that in almost every case GOP US senate and governor winners got fewer votes than mccain got losing the same state in 2008. if dems turn out and vote straight D like in 2008, dems will win. but if they get fooled into staying home obama will lose, or if they split their tickets, he will be handcuffed by a GOP congress again.
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