Sanders’ Extremism is Full of Vice

Sanders’ Extremism is Full of Vice
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
March 10, 2020

“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. ...moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”

Thus were the immortal words spoken by the Republican nominee for president, Arizona Senator Barry M. Goldwater (1909-98), on July 16, 1964, during his acceptance speech at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, home of the GOP convention. Those two statements were, without a doubt, the biggest applause lines of his speech in Goldwater’s clarion call for a new direction for the United States in moving forward from the Kennedy-Johnson days. Sadly, that November Goldwater would be pounded by Lyndon Johnson (1908-73), winning his own full term in the White House.

Today, 56 years later, there is a new extremism brewing, and it is rather foul smelling. This new extremism is viciously dangerous and will most definitely move the United States in a direction heretofore never experienced by Americans. This is an extremism with a price tag of greater than $50 trillion - yes, trillion with a “t,” for the total governmental takeover of the healthcare system that will bankrupt the United States. This is an extremism with a price tag of greater than $16 trillion for a Green New Deal that, if actually implemented, would cripple or bankrupt the automobile industry.

In both cases, millions of people - automobile manufacturers and those associated with that industry; insurance representatives and those associated with that industry will lose their jobs. Once out of work, they will then become reliant upon the government for unemployment payouts, and those folks will not be contributing to the massive tax hikes required to implement the aforementioned plans. Their purchasing power will be severely diminished which will create a glut in the overproductions of goods that will sit on shelves for longer periods of time causing those manufacturers to layoff tens to hundreds of thousands of workers, putting them on the dole. That is just the appetizer.

This is merely a part of self-proclaimed Socialist Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ very unappetising plan, to borrow a phrase from Barack Obama, to fundamentally transform the United States of America. In Sanders’ case, Medicare for all and a single-payer health plan would create a monopoly, ending all competition and costing more than 180 million Americans to lose their current health care coverage - this according to Sanders’ fellow Democrat and former competitor Minnesota Amy Klobuchar. In fact Sanders said his Medicare for all is the answer to the Coronavirus. He could not be more wrong. At current the government is seeking the assistance of private medical centers and labs for testing kits and possible antidotes, as the CDC had to admit their testing kits were unusable. Competition will drive a race to the cure.  Competition - one of the bellwethers making the United States the strong capitalist society that is the envy of millions of people worldwide, which is why they continue to flood our borders to enter this country “by any means necessary.” - Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-80)

Do we really want the federal government taking complete control of our healthcare? See Exhibit A - the Veterans Administration is run so poorly they can’t keep track of veterans - thousands of whom are homeless - the real shame of our country. Those veterans need to be taken care of - we have a moral obligation at the very least. And to be fair, all candidates on both sides of the aisle have called for improvements in that area. Fully take care of the veterans and fund such programs - housing, medical care - physical and mental health - by cutting off the illegal aliens who continue stroming our borders. The poorly run VA is a microcosm of how the government would run healthcare for more than 330 million people living in the United States.

Sanders’ diabolical plans include raising the payroll taxes, raising the death/inheritance tax, as well as taxes on all workers earning $29,000 or more annually. Does $29,000 sound like the one percent - the group Sanders vilifies at every turn? Hardly. And while those taxes will rise, the cost of housing will also continue to rise as will the cost of groceries, and virtually every aspect of American life. What will not rise, undoubtedly, will be the stock market, also a target of Sanders’ vilification, referring to those on the corners of Wall and Broad streets as “crooks.” Naturally the rise in taxes will limit people’s spending abilities, creating more of the vicious cycle described above. 

But Sanders is not interested in simply raising people’s taxes - he is a supporter of wealth confiscation. Sanders hates, no, loathes the one percent, which, by the way, he is a member of that vaunted club. Sanders is clearly stoking the flames of class warfare. He condemns people’s wealth, yet, without it his plans can not be seen to fruition. (Let’s hope that is true.) It is the wealthy that build businesses, companies, and corporations and create jobs. It is the wealthy that create foundations to fund scholarships, grants, universities, hospitals, symphonies, theatres, the arts, and other quality of life enjoyments. 

Sanders also demands a wealth tax, which even if 100 percent of all American’s wealth were confiscated, it still would not come close to what is needed for his takeover of the lives of every American. And while we the people are ponying up these egregious taxes to fund his ineffable socialist schemes, Sanders has committed, as did all the Democrats on the debate stage months ago, to provide free healthcare and education to illegal aliens. There goes the rule of law as well as the economy. 

Think about the concept of free tuition for a moment. How will these institutions of higher education (indoctrination factories) pay their professors? Pay their utilities? Operate dormitories? Feed the masses on the campuses? Will they force schools to raise money by selling naming rights to anything and everything that doesn’t move? The Chick-fil-A Science Labs? The Huntington Bank Economics building? How will these schools pay their athletes either under the table as has been the tradition for decades, or with cash upfront as has been the suggestion from so many unwilling to put their foot down and end that madness.

I can envision the loss of confidence by the American people to commence the day after a Sanders election, not inauguration day, January 20, 2021 - just the same way the day after President Donald Trump’s victory confidence levels and the stock market began to rise. This breach in confidence will include corporations moving their headquarters out of the United States to limit their tax liability. The market will drop precipitously costing millions of people multi-millions of dollars, driving the housing market into a standstill and general spending to a virtual halt, save for necessities. The picture is bleak. It is meant to be a wake-up call.

Sanders simply does not comprehend the concept of the free market economy, for if he did, he would understand that raising taxes spurns growth rather than spurs growth. But this comes from his socialist and statist beliefs - honeymooning in the Soviet Union, speaking and writing complementerally of murderous dictators Fidel Castro of Cuba and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua all the while downplaying their extreme behaviors calling them authoritarian instead of the truthful totalitarian. The literacy program Sanders’ tauts as a Castro success is bunk. On the eve of the Castro Revolution, literacy rates in Cuba were about 77 percent, according to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). Under Castro literacy diid approach 90 percent, but Cubans had no freedom of expression.

Supporting food lines in Nicaragua in 1985, Sanders astonishingly said, “It’s funny, sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is. The people are lining up for food. That’s a good thing! In other countries people don’t line up for food. The rich get the food and the poor starve to death.” I watched that tape of Sanders from 35 years ago and thought he must be confused. Nope. Just addle minded. That was during Ortega’s reign. Ironically, supporters of Sanders are calling themselves “Sandernistas.” Very disturbing as it shows either an absolute lack of knowledge of history, or worse that they understand it all too well and are seeking that kind of despotic leadership in Sanders. Either way no good comes of a Sanders election in November. May G-d save the Union.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.