I like Bernie. We all like Bernie. He’s a genuinely nice man. My socialist free milk loving Eren wears his Onesie.
Bernie the “democratic socialist” .. Not to be confused with “authoritarian socialists aka communists” like Stalin .. Bernie is a nice man, he doesn’t want to hold a gun to your head (unless you don’t pay your taxes then he’ll have you arrested).
And of course, then there is Denmark. Denmark is often referenced by Bernie Sanders as his model for “democratic socialism that works”.
But the socialist party in Denmark only controls 7.8% of the Danish parliament[1]. And their social democrat party, their equivalent of our democrats (Hillary that b*tch), only control 26.3% of the parliament, down from 46.4% in 1935[2].
In fact, Denmark once was much more socialist than it is today, but Denmark has been moving away from socialist policies for the better part of the last 80 years. Denmark even has school vouchers for K-12; crazy conservative idea I know.
Yet Bernie Sanders wants us to move towards socialist policies and references Denmark, a relatively capitalistic country ranked as 12th most economically free[3]. The USA is 11th. Hmm. Is Denmark really “a democratic socialist country that works”?
Bernie Sanders says he’s not a communist, nor a socialist, but a “democratic socialist”. Socialism via the ballot box he calls it. But as I pointed out, Denmark is a country where socialists only control 7.8% of parliament – that is hardly socialism at the ballot box. Denmark is a relatively capitalist country in the grand scheme of things[3].
So which are democratic socialist countries where the socialists actually (you know, reality) became the governing party via the ballot box democratically you ask?
Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Greece, Peru, Venezuela, Northern Ireland, and Brazil[4] — governing socialist majorities, coincidentally all examples of dysfunctional economies which we denounce as the “other” socialism; you know, not the crazy communist stalinist one where people die, but the “other” poverty one that would never happen to us.
But they are exactly that .. countries where “democratically elected” governing socialists have removed “profit” and “capitalism” from the equation. Isn’t that the point of socialism? To get rid of greedy corporations and empower the collective workers? Isn’t that the real model that Bernie Sanders is expressing when he references Denmark? A not for profit economy?
So you may think that socialism in Denmark works, but it doesn’t work. It is the other way around; Denmark works despite it’s existing socialist programs (a drag on the economy) because socialists aren’t the governing party and only control 7.8% of the parliament. Market liberals (greedy capitalist pigs) in Denmark have greater influence and have limited or rolled back (and continue to do so) it’s socialist agenda within Denmark (the 12th freest economy in the world) and therefore can afford a few socialist mistakes (not too many though).
But Bernie Sanders denounced capitalism (which pays for socialist policies) and wants us to move towards socialism. Given our corrupt Donald Trump loving culture, corporate and lobbyist influence, etc., are you sure we’ll end up at Denmark and not Venezuela?
Well, look at the bright side, at least Bernie is not a nation building murderous maniac like Hillary Clinton with her 250k+ dead Syrians, and 4 million+ refugees ..
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-Green_Alliance_(Denmark)
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Democrats_(Denmark)
[3]: http://www.heritage.org/index/country/denmark
[4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_socialism#Parliamentary_democratic_socialist_parties