Bernard Sanders Says 'No' In 52 Words

[From the Democratic presidential contenders' debate on CNN October 13.]

 

[Anderson] COOPER: You don’t consider yourself a capitalist, though?

SANDERS: Do I consider myself part of the casino capitalist process by which so few have so much and so many have so little by which Wall Street’s greed and recklessness wrecked this economy? No, I don’t. I believe in a society where all people do well. Not just a handful of billionaires. [I.e., “No.”]

(APPLAUSE) [From Sanders' supporters in audience.]

[Then Cooper goes fishing for more Commies.]:

COOPER: Just let me just be clear. Is there anybody else on the stage who is not a capitalist?

[Hillary] CLINTON: Well, let me just follow-up on that, Anderson, because when I think about capitalism, I think about all the small businesses that were started because we have the opportunity and the freedom in our country for people to do that and to make a good living for themselves and their families. And I don’t think we should confuse what we have to do every so often in America, which is save capitalism from itself. And I think what Senator Sanders is saying certainly makes sense in the terms of the inequality that we have. But we are not Denmark. I love Denmark. We are the United States of America. And it’s our job to rein in the excesses of capitalism so that it doesn’t run amok and doesn’t cause the kind of inequities we’re seeing in our economic system. But we would be making a grave mistake to turn our backs on what built the greatest middle class in the history...

COOPER: Senator Sanders?

CLINTON: ... of the world.

(APPLAUSE) [From Clinton's supporters in audience.]

SANDERS: I think everybody is in agreement that we are a great entrepreneurial nation. We have got to encourage that. Of course, we have to support small and medium-sized businesses. But you can have all of the growth that you want and it doesn’t mean anything if all of the new income and wealth is going to the top 1 percent. So what we need to do is support small and medium-sized businesses, the backbone of our economy, but we have to make sure that every family in this country gets a fair shake...

COOPER: We’re going to get...

SANDERS: ... not just for billionaires.



Notice how both Clinton and Sanders spin it both ways rhetorically. Not that anything they say is necessarily “wrong.” Just that it's ass-covering.

Clinton wants to pull people leaning towards Sanders to her, without alienating other people. Sanders has a foot in two rowboats, claiming to be a socialist while praising capitalism of the “good” kind- small and entrepreneurial, also trying to appeal to a disenchanted but multifarious electorate.

But I noticed something a bit suspicious. Lincoln Chafee, Martin O'Malley, and James Webb didn't respond to Cooper's question. They didn't volunteer that yes indeed, they are capitalists. Could they be secret communists? Perhaps even members of the same covert cell?

This is a job for the Department of Homeland Security! (I would have said the FBI, but they're busy finding teenage hotheads and mentally ill people to frame-up as Islamic terrorists.)