If Its Bernie, Please Run.

                      

  By Florida Bill 

                  Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has garnered much attention with his call for a "political revolution" to make the United States more like Scandinavia.  At one debate, he even urged America to take a close look at the sweet operations by the Danes.
                 Never mind that Denmark is a country of only 16,000 square miles and fewer than 6 million people. He feels its brand of socialism would suit the US, with its population of about 323 million people occupying more than 3.8 million square miles, just fine. One size fits all when it comes to government giveaways.                       Waving his arms like an out-of-control symphony maestro, Sanders screams that under his leadership, Americans will receive free schooling from kindergarten through college and those who are today carrying a college loan debt will see their debt vanish into thin air. 
                    Bernie's message has resonated with millions of Americans who feel they have been treated unfairly.  He has been the recipient of millions of dollars in contributions to his candidacy for President, and the lion's share has come from young men and women giving an average donation of about $27. 
                   Over 10 years, it is estimated his programs will cost more than 10 trillion dollars, and the largess of course will be provided by taxpayers, with Sanders acknowledging that the rate levied against very wealthy Americans could hit 90 per cent of income. He has not offered any solution to America's existing 19 trillion dollar obligations, but then debt is just numbers on paper.  There will be free health care and medical leave for everyone (no exclusion for illegal aliens) and the minimum wage will rise immediately  to $15 per hour, and it will climb as conditions dictate. It will be Shangri La, to say the least.  Hey Scandinavia, get a load of what the United States is doing. 
                   His plans and programs are wild, bizarre and unrealistic, but millions are applauding his promises of "free stuff" with top wage earners and corporations picking up the tab.
                   Corporations and big banks have been getting away with murder, he charges, pushing everything onto the backs of the middle class which has become the goat in an unfair capitalistic society. Sanders has been demanding these changes ever since he entered Congress some 29 years ago, and he has harbored these dreams since his college days at the University of Chicago in the 1960s, and maybe even before that. 
                  These goals are simply fantasies of a dreamer, totally impracticable.  Could any Congress ever bring about such a transformation?  Reportedly, when Sanders was asked by a New York newspaper editorial board how he could bring this socialist agenda about, he had no answer except to say that there had to be a "political revolution" with overwhelming pressure mounted against lawmakers. Even liberal editors considered his proposals over-the-top, even absurd, it has been reported.
                    Sanders' grandiose promises are troubling even to such notorious liberals as President Obama and his alter ego Hillary Clinton, who is Sanders opponent to become the democratic nominee for President in the election scheduled for next November.  Clinton, despite all her baggage, is on track to become the nominee, sending Sanders back to the Senate where he can continue to foment over the evils of Wall Street and the big banks. 
                   But while his bizarre schemes to transform America into a socialist country are such as not to be taken seriously, they are just the tip of the iceberg with a Sanders' presidency.
                    I find it amazing and disturbing that the 74-year-old Sanders, who dodged the draft during the Viet Nam crisis, would ask citizens to make him the Commander-in-Chief of the military, and at the same time, in today's hostile world, he is calling for the United States to phase out all of its nuclear arsenal.  It seems that his millions of young fans never factor those credentials into their judgment of him.                     
                    When sent a draft notice in the 1960s, Sanders declared that he was a pacifist and declined to wear the uniform of his country. While millions answered the call of Uncle Sam during the difficult Viet Nam era, Sanders claimed status as a conscientious objector.  He opposed the war, not for religious reasons as Muhammad Ali did, but because he was against all wars for any and all reasons.  He could never fight for his country.  War was anathema under any conditions, and he found satisfaction instead as an anti-war activist, and was arrested once or more times during demonstrations.  
                           He was an organizer of the Congress of Racial Equality  and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Student Peace Union. According to some critics, this was his all-consuming activity.   Apparently, he shared the anti-war values of  Aldous Huxley, author of "Brave New World,"  and he admired the intellect and pacifist leanings of the renowned physicist, Albert Einstein.  For pacifist Sanders, war cannot be justified, and it is likely that this attitude would guide his hand as America's Commander-in-Chief.  
                           Potentially, as Commander in Chief, he would make decisions as to America's defense against hostile nations and if his own history is any indicator, he would reject war even in the case of attack on the USA. 
                           Sanders has said in debates and in interviews that the greatest threat to America is "climate change."  He seems to agree with President Obama and Hillary Clinton in that regard; and that ISIS and other terrorists are merely a junior varsity which are given undeserved relevance and concern.  
                           Many Democrats say they are frightened by the idea of a Donald Trump presidency. With Sanders at the helm, it is a terrifying thought to every sensible and patriotic American, regardless of party preference.  

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