Bernie Sanders
It’s OK To Be
Angry About Capitalism
8/29/23
I sit in a friend’s backyard this wonderful
late summer sunny afternoon. All Beautiful Blue Sky and about to jump into
Bernie’s new book for the 4th time. Yep, 4. First time I read it
cover to cover so fast I could barely “red ink” parts that jump my soul. Why,
you ask?
That
Sanders guy matters and I like what I hear. Morals, ethics, and smarts I appreciate,
go, Bernie, go!
Introduction: CAPITALISM IS THE
PROBLEM
First sentence floors me. Second
sentence better. Every sentence better, every paragraph matters.
Bernie limits his keen eye to American
policy of recent past, I understand. Third paragraph is example: “Here is the
simple, straight forward reality: The uber-capitalist economic system that has
taken hold in the United States in recent years, propelled by uncontrollable
greed and contempt for human decency, is not merely unjust. It is grossly
immoral.”
But Bernie, really, recent years? Methinks the minute
Europeans set foot on these shores, greed propelled every step. However, Bernie
keeps his focus recent, ok. Bernie pokes the living breathing bear with smarts,
passion, and vision.
And his voice! I hear him reading this
book out loud as I read each sentence. That takes some of the harsh out.
Another sentence from the intro: “In
the twenty-first century we can end the vicious dog-eat-dog economy in which
the vast majority struggle to survive, while a handful of billionaires have
more wealth than they could spend in a thousand lifetimes.”
We can? Bernie has a few suggestions.
How I appreciate his optimism, I have little left. He explains what big money
does – buys politicians and their vote to keep their yachts afloat. They own
most media, their interests are served as they control policy, and diminish
critical examination by any media that doesn’t agree with how the big kids
play.
My problem is time. With the 2015-16
Chump mess, then 2019-20 covd and election mess, I’ve forgotten so much. Brain
fog w/6 covd shots? Maybe. I so very much appreciate Bernie chatting up his two
runs for President, I find this account of these last 8 years very helpful. He
ran against Hilary! He won 22 states primaries! Young folks by the millions got
their vote thing figured out and voted in primaries. SHOCK! Bernie has the gift
of talking to young voters in a way they like, want more of, and VOTE! He now
shows how this deeply disturbed power.
Hard facts tell how Bernie mattered to
young voters and how establishment power chopped at his kneecaps.
Bernie says, “During our campaigns,
millions of young people in this country made it clear: They wanted change,
real change.”
When Bernie’s campaign lost the 2020
Dem nomination, he worked with the progressive movement to defeat Chump and
elect Biden. Bernie says they are friends and sees Biden as a very decent human
being.
Hmm. Bernie, what about Anita Hill?
Where was Biden’s decency when he had power to accept her testimony but instead
opened the door to the Supreme Court for CT? Decent?
Such good news for Biden’s campaign,
as with Bernie’s supporters willing to vote for Biden, it worked. Methinks some
voted against Chump, not for Biden.
How I wish it weren’t so – even though
Biden won in 2020, Chump got 10 million more votes than 2016. Bernie
goes into detail of why that happened. How Dems have dropped the ball on
helping folks have better life outcomes and now believe Chump will.
Bernie points out how the Obama
administration would not, did not, could not make policy/law to improve the
average citizen’s circumstances. But wait, Bernie. Maybe the fact that Obama
didn’t have congressional votes? The fact that the GOP did everything they
could to stop Obama’s “Yes We Can.” And Biden was in the thick of that mess? Whose
fault is it that “Citizens United” Supreme Court ruling, now approves corporate
funding of politicians? Now the corrupt campaign finance system is ok! Ugh.
Here are some sub-headings:
Failing to Build Back Better –
ouch.
Economic Rights are Human Rights
– really?
Bernie gives FDR quote from 1944 State
of the Union speech – middle of WWII – that – “True individual freedom cannot
exist without economic security and independence.” An aside here, my wealthy
boss HATED FDR, as did most GOP types. And why, you ask? According to her, he turned
away from GOP values even though he was part of one of the wealthiest (GOP)
families in US history. More on her later.
Bernie points out how that now three
Wall Street firms, Black Rock, Vanguard, and State Street control assets of
over $20 trillion and are major shareholders in almost every major corporation
– media, transportation, agriculture, and manufacturing. Sounds like CEO of GE,
dangerous Jack Welch’s greed values took hold and crushed GE to tiny pieces. To
him, and to Friedman, libertarian at UC economics, nothing is more
important than making $ for stockholders. Nothing. Welsh took corporate greed
to new depths.
The intro concludes with:
For a New America
And several paragraphs of how we can
have healthy change. Excellent. Bernie quotes MLK’s 1967 talk to Southern
Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, regarding the 40 million poor
people in the USA and why capitalism chokes wealth distribution. Time to ask
questions.
Turn
the page.
Chapter
1. Not Me, Us.
The 2020 campaign and the fight to
transform our country.
Chapter 1 starts, “On April 8, 2020” –
OH. FYI, that date marked a terrible year worldwide, Covd had infected the USA
in March, 2020 and by April, it was a living/dying nightmare everywhere. That’s
the back story of what Bernie did that day. He suspended his campaign. Why? His
push to be President had fallen short of the delegates needed. Here, he reminds
readers that what he offers is a movement, not just a campaign.
Ouch! Polls showed Bernie’s campaign
did poorly with older voters, but young, Black, Latino, Asian American, Native
American and white voters under 40 yrs. old rallied with passion, labor, volunteering
everywhere. A new way to fund a campaign, small $, no big $ here.
Well, damn it, I’m an older voter and
gladly vote for him. Duhh
Bernie points out the disastrous
Supreme Court ruling for ‘Citizens United’ which opens the door for Big Money
to buy politicians. Bernie says that needs to be overturned and establish
public funding of campaigns. Such a dreamer!
A Campaign Finance Revolution,
Seizing the Political Power of Social Media, Speaking to Voters in Their Own
Language, Taking the Message Directly to the People, You’re Having a Heart
Attack
OMG. With all my sudden life changes
I’d forgotten this harsh fact. Heart attack? Yep. It happened to Bernie while
he was at a campaign event, October 1, 2019. He gives details of the hours,
days, and weeks after, and by two weeks after he was back at it. His poll #’s
kept rising, he mattered as did his vision for what we deserve.
Confronting the Status Quo
He was giving Dems sleepless nights.
Why? “What the establishment was anxious about was the fact that we were
beginning to transform the Dem Party from an election machine dominated by
wealthy campaign contributors and corporate interests into a multi racial,
multi-ethnic, urban and rural movement of the working class.”
How I wish I could find value in the
fact that the Dem Party and current President, Biden, up for re-election,
both wanted Bernie gone. Well, after all, Bernie isn’t a Dem. So that.
Bernie chats up the last Dem debate of
Feb. 29, 2020 – how the others ignored issues and attacked Bernie all night.
Grrrrrrr.
Ending a Campaign, Carrying a
Movement Forward
Hard times for the Bernie folks, what
to do? Bernie explains, since his main goal was to get Chump out of the White
House, Bernie pivoted, gave OK to back Biden. Defeat Chump!
As Bernie gave his concession speech,
he shared the common thread like this – the greatest obstacle to reach social
change is the power of the corporate and political establishment to limit our
vision. Do we deserve good health care? Decent wage and working conditions? All
the education necessary to fulfill our dreams? Clean environment? How dare we
want those?
Chapter
2 Taking on Trump
Our
progressive movement’s struggle to defeat the most dangerous president in
American history.
How Bernie and campaign staff handled
the Biden show. Ugh. Hard read.
How Task Forces Gave the Biden Campaign a
Progressive Agenda
So hard to imagine smart, articulate,
determined progressives at the same table with Biden Dems. Check pg. 42 for how
a wide variety of topics were considered and what both could agree on.
Sickening. Now I feel duped into believing Dems have heart. Nope. Some do, lots
don’t.
The Most Progressive Platform in the
history of the Dem Party
I guess!
Addressing the Dem National Convention
Virtual – covd. That.
Bernie gave the opening keynote
speech, to a camera, not a crowd. He ripped Chump apart for his four years of
mess, good read here.
Building the Anti-Trump Movement
Interesting question here: “How could
we effectively support a candidate who was far more conservative that I was
without compromising our progressive principles or disappointing our
supporters?” How, indeed.
Our Mostly Virtual Campaign for Joe Biden
and Kamala Harris
OMG! Bernie did a car rally for Biden
in Michigan! Damn, I totally forgot that. Bernie went, many hundreds of cars
honked, oh! I’d forgotten how that rolled, wish a date/place was included. Good
news, 2020 Michigan election went to Biden.
Campaigning Against Systemic Racism,
Raising Political Consciousness, Battling Against Covid 19 and Pandemic
Profiteering
Sickening how Chump failed in so many
ways. Important read anyway.
The Fight for Democracy
Well! No wonder I love me some Bernie.
On Sept. 24, 2020, Bernie gave a speech at George Washington University and
warned what Chump was capable of if he lost the election. Yep. That. If only
the Capital Police had been listening…
Chapter 3 The Fight to Build Back Better
Why do Dems have such a hard time
delivering on the promise of transformational change?
Hmm, clear as mud. I guess Bernie and
his writer John Nichols, so familiar with the details of Senate rules, they
assume we know what is discussed here. Back and forth with important dates –
like the GA run-off that gave 2 Dems entry to Senate on Jan. 5, 2021. Then the
narrative jumps back to Dec. 28, 2020 and what Bernie did to make Senators vote
for a $2,000 payment to every man, woman, and child in the USA to give them
some much needed cash through those ugly covd times.
I’m confused. Senate rules are
waaaaaaay uninteresting, so that. Then drop in the confusion about who voted
for that $2,000, when that vote happened and why Bernie’s objection to Senators
leaving before that vote could matter. Something about Bernie’s objection meant
that Senators could not go home??? Do I care?
Well, it is funny. McConnell claimed
the $2000 to all was socialism! LOL!
Then it gets better. Bernie tells us
that McConnell voted happily for a tax break for Charles Koch - $1.4 Billion.
I’m gonna puke. It gets worse. Amazon got a $129 million tax REBATE check from
IRS after paying nothing in federal income taxes. Puke.
Best to read this section, lots of
important details if you have courage to grasp how ugly it was. Remember, this
was before any covd shots, we as a nation lived in real minute-by-minute FEAR
re: covd.
Bernie’s staff director did a very
cool thing, enlarged the tax rebate check to Amazon to poster size so all in
Senate had to see that big money going to very profitable corporations.
In
the Middle of a Violent Assault on Democracy
Jan. 6, 2021. Bernie was there. He was
in a room guarded by police and FBI with machine guns. Fucking insane.
Bernie then chats up Jan. 20, 2021,
Biden’s inauguration which was extremely fortified by well-armed National Guard
units from many states. WTF.
Bernie is so generous, tells how he
chatted with many Guard, they were defending our Constitution. Maybe. I have my
doubts. Some of the attacked and bloodied Capital police were Chump supporters,
get your brain around that. Very likely some Guard were, too. Sad. Sad. My extreme
racist father, career Navy, dead now, would have been a HUGE Chumper. So, for
me, seeing someone in military uniform does not lead to me believing they are
good guys. The US military offers secure paycheck, housing, assumed respectability,
and how well I know extreme racists benefit from this job security. Oath
keepers, anyone?
Good news – as a little girl I knew my
father was wrong. I went to school with Black kids, they were just kids like
me. Years of stress and zero communication, try again, no way to respect his
violent views, back away, far away. Thank God he died before Chump became
President, OMG, that would have been sooooooo ugly.
A Pair of Mittens
What a fun read! Check it!
Chairman of Senate Budget Committee
I appreciate Bernie’s effort to now
educate me about Senate rules – that “reconciliation bill”? Ugly. But since
Bernie was Chairman, he knew how to play the game. Sad news – Jan. 2021 was the
deadliest month of covd. Good read of what pressures we faced in those harsh
covd times. Check it. Interesting how Bernie tried to get better outcomes for
those struggling with serious life altering circumstances. I was so lost in my
own covd fear I could barely calculate what was going on in Congress. Bernie shows
what a mess it was.
The Fight for $15
Bernie was determined to raise the
Federal minimum wage to $15/hr. Remember that? Sad, sad. $15/hr mattered, but
that’s not a living wage for adult workers. Rent to pay, car hassles, kid
expenses, health bills, nope, $15/hr is lame unless you live with parents or
roomies.
Bernie put his best effort to get this
passed, I highly recommend you read this info. He lists the Dems and
Independents who voted against the $15/hr. bill. Puke. To me, if you are an
adult on your own, in 21st century USA, $25/hr is modest comfort.
Nothing fancy, but a wage to afford a respectable life. Well, in the mid-west
maybe. That $25/hr in big cities means sharing a small apartment with a
stranger or two. Methinks raising minimum wage only leads to rent going up, other
necessary expenses going up up up.
Back
in the late sixties, a friend and I would challenge each other to find good
food cheap, goal was two lunches for $5.00. Great chili restaurant in Chicago,
yep! And yep, couple bucks for the tip, of course. So $7 for two lunches. We
rented a crappy apt. on the near west side, the whole neighborhood was getting
bought up by the University Med center, so our apt. in a condemned building was
$37.50/mo! Whoop! No car, only bikes. Yeah, I got chased and robbed one time
coming home. But damn those brats, I rolled off my downed bike, got up and
chased them! They ran into a huge housing development along Taylor St., I
quickly realized going in there just about nighttime was stupid. Purse gone. Cops
saw my bike, I returned, they got me back to the condemned place. I’m a lucky
woman.
A Single Vote Lifted Millions of
Americans Out of Desperation
Ah, the American Rescue Plan. Ok. An
emergency measure that made a positive difference.
The Slow Road to Building Back
Better
What? GOP’s bill, Endless Frontier Act
– Yikes. Let’s give a $10 million bailout to Jeff Bezos so he can get a NASA
contract??????? WTF. And it passed the Senate, 68-32. Puke.
Bernie tells us he was lone voice
inside Dem Caucus opposing that bill. Next paragraph Senate vote 68-32, so
Bernie, what about those other 31 votes? Curious. Some editor missed something.
Bernie explains what he and some Dem
Senators wanted in new bill, just an amazing two pages of what would lead to
much better outcomes for us on the bottom. Important read of who, what, why we
didn’t get that. Puke. It gets worse. Now I start – again – to strongly dislike
how ideas fly or fail in Washington, D.C.
So Close and Yet So Far
Ugly. I remember following much of
this on CNN, what else to do when I can’t go anywhere besides a 15 min. trip to
shop for food? Covd. Watched lots of CNN and thank God for Colbert, he could
find humor in these shit times. This read gives the sad facts of how some politicians
dance to their big $$$$$ interests. No Build Back Better. Duhh.
Why
do Democrats Fail to Hold Republicans to Account?
Find out.
Building Back a Little Better
Wanna get sick? Read this.
Almost LOL, yes, I watch CNN. Ad after
ad after ad tells me how this drug will help me be me, don’t worry about ten
serious side effects, just take this drug and I’ll be fine. Bernie tells in
detail how Pharma gets its way with Congress. Details. Valuable read. Bold
print. Sickening facts. Another one, Fossil fuel industry knows how to work it.
A Last Chance to Get It Right
I don’t get it. Bernie proposed
amendment after amendment all through the night on Senate floor, fail fail fail
and then reconciliation bill passed 51-50. Huh?
It’s Time to Stop Settling for Less
Two worthy paragraphs and why I feel
the Bern. Pg. 95.
Chapter
4 Billionaires Should Not Exist
Only
by ending American Oligarchy can We Begin to Realize America’s Promise
Bernie at his best. He wants to do
away with our billionaires – tells why, oh my. Could USA really eliminate
poverty, homelessness, have health care for all, have education through
graduate college be free for all, hard work is rewarded with a living wage?
Bernie explains why the billionaires own the current “democracy” as they have politicians
protecting their interests while most Americans struggle every day for their
survival.
Greed is Not Good
Excellent. Bernie calls out conservatives
who go on about moral values that limit us in so many ways. BAM! He puts it so
directly, “unfettered capitalism is not just creating economic misery for the
majority of Americans, it is destroying our health, well-being, our democracy,
and our planet.” Then he says, “we must identify the people and the policies
that engineer this destruction.” And then this:
“There is something profoundly wrong,
however, when massive corporations, controlled by the wealthiest people on
earth, lie, cheat, bribe, and steal in order to make profits…”
LOL! Bernie chats up recent media re:
Putin and his Russian buddies and then says those jerks are just like our $$$$
jerks. He even points out how our media keeps the finger pointing at those
Russian bad guys, not our bad guys.
Oh, time to eat, I have a few carrots
and some onions, even some brown rice. My Michigan “Bridge Card” $, empty now,
gets next bump in two, no, three weeks. Food only, and with very careful
shopping I can stretch it. Guess my “splurge” to get ground round for my
meatloaf recipe drained the Bridge card for now. Bernie understands.
Pg. 101, oh, that “golden rule” thing,
if only, Bernie. Hard to face it, but truth is as Europeans arrived, “golden
rule” was not on the ‘to-do’ list. He finishes with “if we fail to make the
right choice” – VOTE – “it will be made for us by the powerful few…” duhh. A
First Nations friend pointed out, “that ‘golden rule’ didn’t work out so good
for us.”
Living
Under Oligarchy
Now I’m sick and mad. How the hell did
USA’s most wealthy get richer during covd times? Well, they did. Depressing
stats. And what to do with all that $$$$$$$$$$$$$$? Get very cozy with
politicians, buy influence. Hope Bernie includes how our folks on the Supreme
Court happily enjoy influence and big perks... Grrrrrrrrr
Facts of who has the control, and he
says it – we are not a democracy, USA is an oligarchy. Face it.
The Oligarchs Are Different
Painful truth here. In a way, I know.
Why? Because for over 6 years, I was private secretary to one of the world’s wealthy
women, Jane Blaffer Owen. Yes I did. Yes I saw. Yes, I’m glad I’m not involved
with that family. Yes, I wrote about my years on the inside. Manuscript ready,
any literary agents interested?
I have no doubt of how Bernie chats up
how ultra wealthy live, sure. My boss, JBO, a grand dame of Houston, TX, had created
something in a small historic town that had been going downhill for a long
time. Her unlimited check book changed New Harmony, IN., in 10,000 ways. Her $
did much good, yet her choice of who would handle her concerns was sad. It was
a big machine in a small town, 160 employees running a 90 room Inn, two good
restaurants, several small businesses, three sets of gardeners, several
historic homes used for special arriving guests, lots of fine art everywhere,
she even commissioned a roofless church, a big one. It took me years to have
any accurate understanding of how the whole thing rolled, and so very very sad
as I learned that only supervisors got health insurance. WTF? That left many
hard working adults with no health care. She must have known, though of course,
she didn’t actually do the books, of course not. The fact that so many of her
staff were un-insured didn’t bother her, she would much rather spend big $$$$
on next artist for a new sculpture, a building, a huge party, etc.
I remember a day when she read a fax
from a TX friend, news that maybe the Federal government would raise the
minimum wage – she EXPLODED with anger, “If they do that, I won’t be able to
buy a new pair of shoes this winter!”
Dumb me said to her, “This probably
won’t affect you, minimum wage is for new hires, most staff here are longtime.”
Dumb me. Why wouldn’t an employer let a new hire, if they met job requirements,
have a better salary? Keep folks on minimum wage for years? Puke.
Much later in that job, I was
assisting the arrival of a guest, a long-time friend of my boss, both wealthy
TX women. I heard my boss complimenting the guest on her shoes, they both used
the same cobbler in Italy. Puke.
Don’t Hate Musk, Hate the System
that Made Musk Possible
Bernie cautions us: don’t get bogged
down with personalities, it creates the false impression that a couple bad eggs
are the problem. No! It’s a systemic crisis. Excellent points of how this
matters.
Upending a System That Attacks Our
Values and Mangles Priorities
Any doubt about Bernie? He tells us,
“Our struggle is to end a system that evaluates ‘worth’ as a measure of market
profitability, a system in which we are asked to believe – based on salaries
paid – that the star athlete who helps a billionaire team owner increase his
bottom line is ‘worth’ more than a thousand teachers who help children escape
poverty.” Then more facts to back this up. Oh, little things like how a drug
company CEO gets a $926 million golden parachute and our local EMT workers get
maybe $40,000/yr.
Bernie walks the reader into the
history of how “we the people” isn’t about “we” at all. He has deep regard for
Eugene V. Debs, 1855-1926, who said, “I am opposing a social order in which it
is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a
fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars while millions of men and women who
work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched
existence.” Bernie goes deep on his respect and admiration for Eugene Debs and
gives clear view of why most Americans barely know the name, know nothing about
the man. Bernie tells how Debs was erased from American culture. The big kids
didn’t like him.
Conclusion:
I got a unique look at great wealth
when I took a job as private secretary to one of the world’s wealthiest women.
A bit over 6 years there, fascinating as this was waaaaaaaaay beyond any job
I’d ever had. Shit. Owning my small massage service for 13 years hardly
mattered – except that’s why she hired me – her oldest daughter, an adult, had
severe aftermath of polio and got massage several times a week in her high end
NYC life. My boss thought maybe daughter would visit more often if massage was
possible in the tiny town. Me.
No, I was not privy to her holdings,
but she had a lot. Her birthright $$$$$$$. She married a cruel man with no $,
had three daughters, never worked a day in her life, but the hubby had a town!
My boss spent her adult life putting her wealth into a crumbling piece of
American history, she worked tirelessly for her vision. Her wealth was from her
father and mother’s combined TX oil $$$$$$$$$$, and as far as I understood, my
boss relied on the stock market $, well, some, anyway. Once I did see paperwork
that suggested that if the stock market had a good year, my boss would have
$2million to play with that year.
Almost
funny, during my time, she’d been sitting on a gift from her uncle, and she
finally decided how to spend it. Make a mathematically accurate 42 ft. granite
replica of the labyrinth that is part of the floor design at a famous French
Cathedral. Turn a side yard from one of her many houses into a large garden
with the granite labyrinth in the middle, hire a world famous sculptor who
specializes in fountains to add a fountain along the side, and have a sharp
architect deal with the dream. She was so happy about this, as with the uncle’s
gift, she didn’t have to have meetings about where money would go. It was hers!
She could spend it without any hassle from anybody! That project was an
interesting part of my work there.
With my experience there, I have a strong
appreciation for Bernie’s thinking and world view. Love me some Bernie. I’m
still puzzled why this book didn’t get released as a paperback, seems the best
way to let more folks afford it. So many mysteries.
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