The Hygiology Post ®

In the first Democratic Party Presidential Debate last week which aired on CNN Vermont Senator explained democratic socialism in the following way:

“What democratic socialism is about is saying that it is immoral and wrong that the top one-tenth of 1 percent in this country own almost 90 percent — almost — own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. That it is wrong, today, in a rigged economy, that 57 percent of all new income is going to the top 1 percent.” He continued to say “That when you look around the world, you see every other major country providing health care to all people as a right, except the United States.”

Interestingly, earlier this month, Republican Candidate and Businessman Donald Trump called Bernie Sanders a “maniac…tax you people at 90 percent…take everything…Nobody heard the term communist, but you know what, I call him a socialist/communist, okay? ‘Cause that’s what he is”.

Technically when you use the word slash it is my understanding it means “either, or”. So, technically Bernie Sanders is a Socialist (albeit Democratic Socialist) and therefore, technically, Donald Trump is correct. Just as it would apparently be technically correct to say that Donald Trump is a Mexican/American Citizen. But in either case it would seem to manipulate the usage of a slash mark to create a sort of fog to obscure instead of clarify. Democratic socialism has a high degree of freedom of choice for the people within a government unlike communism and/or totalitarianism.

Bernie Sanders said yesterday in Iowa City, Iowa that he will give “a major speech in the not-too-distant future” to explain what it means to be a democratic socialist. He also said “I think there are a lot of people who, when they hear the word ‘socialist,’ get very, very nervous…To me, democratic socialism means democracy. It means creating a government that represents all of us, not just the wealthiest people in the country.”

Toward that very end, this Author originally created The Voter Scorecard  © 1988, 2011 over twenty five years ago.

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