Bernie Sanders is putting socialism on the American agenda. Socialism in Europe was essential in fighting child labor, income inequality, in arriving at equal pay for men and women, health care for all and union rights, among other achievements. This was "then" and socialism was the agent of change for conditions which, for the most part, no longer exist. The movement then was truly transformational. The system in the United States was equally affected by FDR's New Deal or LBJ's Great Society, but those extraordinary initiatives were "corrections" which, contrary to Europe, never contradicted the capitalist essentials of the American fabric. The delirious aberrations of Lenin or Mao found few followers in the United States. Socialism remained a Utopia with few takers.
Now Sanders has resuscitated the corpse. He sounds sometimes like a deranged Piketty. He is right in saying that income inequality is growing, that the distance between Wall Street and Main Street has become too large. But he is wrong in prescribing punitive, mostly outdated remedies or in attacking trade deals. If one were to listen to him, America would lose its premier class seat in innovation, start-ups, high-tech and would end up punishing the providers of wealth and creativity, encouraging entrepreneurs to invest outside rather than to expand inside.
True, the U.S. need some social engineering to deal with discrepancies which benefit the super managers and top incomes. The ever growing income of capital only highlights stagnating wages which feel frozen. The malaise cannot be denied, but Sanders is the wrong doctor even if his intentions are sincere. He talks like a pre-globalization, classical Keynesian in a world wherein one computerized sell order in Singapore might disrupt the markets worldwide. Technology marginalized theoretical answers. Adam Smith (and Milton Friedman's school) remains relevant though, while Marx has become just a brilliant but failed Utopian. Bernie Sanders sounds strangely out of touch, but his message resonates nevertheless with mostly younger voters, who are sold to his often simplistic but persuasive rhetoric. He promises the moon but he forgets to mention how to pay for the ride and where to find the rocket!
The other contenders are unappealing, to various degrees. Trump is a loose canon (for now), while Cruz comes over as an unabashed right wing, religious zealot. Kasich, the only gentleman in the flock, often sounds desperate. Mrs. Clinton has the advantage but her victory in New York has to be more than just a decent score if she intends to strive for an easy coronation. She carries too much baggage to pretend to fly in economy-class.
The Americans act as if they feel stranded in some nightmarish impasse. The President does not help because his academic skepticism collides with their more activist, solution-oriented nature. They are looking for leadership. In their haste to break out of the abstractions which they endured for eight years, they are tempted to go for the megaphone instead of engaging in a sobering dialogue about America's role in the world and the adjustments that have to be considered for restarting the engine.
Tuesday's New York primaries might only bring bitter tidings, with no "real" winners or losers. What is at stake is a system which was the envy of the world and which is now in jeopardy.
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