The Lifelong Republicans Who Love Bernie Sanders

Mary7 · Nov 25, 2015

(That would be me

.. former Tea Party and lifelong Republican
)
Some conservatives are defying expectation and backing the Vermont senator.There are Facebook groups and Reddit forums devoted entirely to Republicans who adore the Vermont senator.
These Republicans for Sanders defy neat categorization. Some are fed up with the status quo in Washington, and believe that Sanders, with his fiery populist message, is the presidential contender most likely to disrupt it. Others have voted Republican for years, but feel alarmed by what they see as the sharp right turn the party has taken.
In some cases, longtime Republican voters who have decided to support Sanders, are rethinking their political affiliation entirely
Far from claiming to have experienced a political conversion, other Republicans argue that Sanders actually embodies conservative values.

“When I think of true conservative values I think of Teddy Roosevelt who earned a reputation as a trust-buster,” says Jeff DeFelice, a 38-year-old registered Republican voter living in Florida. “Now look at Bernie. He’s the only one willing to stand up to the big banks. The big banks control an obscene amount of wealth in this country and he wants to go after them.” If Sanders looks like “a viable candidate” by the time the primary rolls around, DeFelice says he’ll switch his party affiliation to vote for the senator.http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...conservatives-who-love-bernie-sanders/417441/

For those that will start yelling 'socialism' I would ask that you discontinue using the socialist programs in the USA:
military
police
fire dpt
roads
garbage pickup
bridges
post office
social security
landfills
farm subsidies
corporate subsidies
FBI
CIA
congressional healthcare
polio vaccine
EPA
museums
VA
public parks
sewer system
all elected officials
Hoover Dam
GI bill
zoos
Pentagon
FDA
unemployment insurance
state beaches
snow removal
city lighting
Amtrack
public defenders
national weather service
jails/prisons
too many to list.. many more listed here: http://bigcorporationusa.blogspot.com/2011/07/we-people-75-ways-socialism-has.html

iluvatar5150 · Nov 25, 2015

I was wondering when this was going to happen.

KWCrazy · Nov 25, 2015

It's true, there are a lot of liberals who call themselves Republicans though they side with other liberals in many cases. The problem with the Republican Party in Washington is that in going for the "big tent" they allowed these RINO's to dillute the message and make the Republican Party only a slightly more sensible version of the extreme left Democrat Party. As Carly Fiorina pointed out, the only way to exist with a bloated, out of control government is with a bloated, out of control private sector. The net result is an oligarchy in which power is shared by but a few. The reality of socialism is that it results in exactly that which Sanders and the OP is railing against.

As for the Republican Party taking a sharp right trun, we can only hope. What we've seen was a radicalization of the Democratic Party, morphing it into something totally indistinguishable from pure socialism. Even the president of the DNC couldn't come up with any differences between the Democrats and Socialists now. Now the party mantra is class envy and wealth re-distribution. Karl Marx would be proud. The long held practice of dividing America into fractions and pitting them against each other has been largely successful. We are now more divided than ever. We are once more at the point where people are marching in protest of anything American and people who feel like they are loing control are fighting back with violence. Congratulations, Obama. You've re-invented Selma; that event that got you born.... when you were seven.

In no other time since our beginning would Americans consider Bernie Sanders for president. Most would have recognized him for the Marxist cromudgeon that he is and would have dismissed him as being to the left of lunatic. Now, however, America has been led down the primrose path of voting away jobs in exchange for being supported by Big Brother. It's a sad, sad state of affairs to see Americans so envious of that which others have earned that they would sacrifice their own liberty for a slice of someone else's pie.

ChristsSoldier115 · Nov 25, 2015

It is the cool thing to love socialists and commies in today's america. On the left we have the Benie folks, and the right.. for some reason a lot of my republican friends love Putin. I am sure Reagan is rolling over in his grave over that ridiculousness.

grasping the after wind · Nov 25, 2015

Mary7 said:
(That would be me .. former Tea Party and lifelong Republican
)
Some conservatives are defying expectation and backing the Vermont senator.There are Facebook groups and Reddit forums devoted entirely to Republicans who adore the Vermont senator.
These Republicans for Sanders defy neat categorization. Some are fed up with the status quo in Washington, and believe that Sanders, with his fiery populist message, is the presidential contender most likely to disrupt it. Others have voted Republican for years, but feel alarmed by what they see as the sharp right turn the party has taken.
In some cases, longtime Republican voters who have decided to support Sanders, are rethinking their political affiliation entirely
Far from claiming to have experienced a political conversion, other Republicans argue that Sanders actually embodies conservative values.

“When I think of true conservative values I think of Teddy Roosevelt who earned a reputation as a trust-buster,” says Jeff DeFelice, a 38-year-old registered Republican voter living in Florida. “Now look at Bernie. He’s the only one willing to stand up to the big banks. The big banks control an obscene amount of wealth in this country and he wants to go after them.” If Sanders looks like “a viable candidate” by the time the primary rolls around, DeFelice says he’ll switch his party affiliation to vote for the senator.http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...conservatives-who-love-bernie-sanders/417441/

I guess Mr. DeFelice and some low information voters that thought they were conservatives for no apparent reason, other than perhaps they came of age at a time when it was considered uncool to be a bleeding heart liberal, have no conception of what a conservative is. Certainly not if they thinks Teddy Roosevelt was a conservative simply because he was for busting up trusts( something an actual conservative of that time would not be all that interested in doing as in those days the trusts were less likely to be government sponsored and government protected political allies of one of the two oligarchies called political parties) . Fascist and Conservative are two very different things and Teddy was very much a fascist before the term was even invented. Republicans alarmed that their party is turning right can put their mind at ease by looking instead at reality. Even with majorities in both houses of Congress, the Republicans have done absolutely nothing to be accused of being in the least bit conservative, talk is not action and many Republicans are very adept at talking like they will do things that conservatives favor while not actually doing any of them.

Albion · Nov 25, 2015

"Military, police..."

Obviously, there's some misunderstanding about the meaning of the word "Socialism."

dogs4thewin · Nov 25, 2015

Just because all of those things are run by the government does NOT mean that we need more government control, nor does it mean that people SUPPORT all those things being UNDER government control; particularly in those cases where it is the federal government controlling.

essentialsaltes · Nov 25, 2015

I think Bernie's populist appeal can definitely cross the aisle. The Tea Party has some populist origins.

Mary7 · Nov 25, 2015

Albion said:
"Military, police..."

Obviously, there's some misunderstanding about the meaning of the word "Socialism." [/QUOT

Run by the government.
Also I am talking about Democratic Socialism not Marxism. You can have capitalism and socialism as we already have here and democracy.

Albion · Nov 25, 2015

You're right about the Democratic Socialism, but the mere existence of government with any services at all doesn't constitute Socialism. To have an army, for example, is not to have a Socialist government.

Sheeple Shepherd · Nov 26, 2015

I'm looking forward to God destroying this country.

lupusFati · Nov 26, 2015

Sheeple Shepherd said:
I'm looking forward to God destroying this country.

Guess that'll never happen.

Sketcher · Nov 27, 2015

They're so "conservative" that they support card check rather than requiring a secret ballot by law when forming a union? Bernie does. That alone should be a deal breaker for every conservative.

Mary7 · Nov 27, 2015

Albion said:
You're right about the Democratic Socialism, but the mere existence of government with any services at all doesn't constitute Socialism. To have an army, for example, is not to have a Socialist government.

Democracy is a form of government.
Democratic Socialism is economic.
apples and oranges.
You can have Democracy with Democratic socialism and also capitalism, both being economic.

Frenzy · Nov 27, 2015

Albion said:
You're right about the Democratic Socialism, but the mere existence of government with any services at all doesn't constitute Socialism. To have an army, for example, is not to have a Socialist government.

Anyone who joins with another for the benefit of both is a democratic socialist, if 100 people put in $10 to buy coffee in bulk and get it for $5 a pound instead of $7 is a democratic socialist.

iluvatar5150 · Nov 27, 2015

Sketcher said:
They're so "conservative" that they support card check rather than requiring a secret ballot by law when forming a union? Bernie does. That alone should be a deal breaker for every conservative.

Card check doesn't do away with secret ballots altogether. There's nothing untoward about it at all.

Albion · Nov 27, 2015

Mary7 said:
Democracy is a form of government.
Democratic Socialism is economic.

No, it's Socialism that retains an elective system.

You can have Democracy with Democratic socialism and also capitalism, both being economic.

Wrong. Sorry, but that's not correct.

Albion · Nov 27, 2015

Frenzy said:
Anyone who joins with another for the benefit of both is a democratic socialist

That's nonsense. Socialism is, first of all, a form of government. Any talk about "anyone who joins with another, etc." has missed the most basic point in a discussion of this topic.

Mary7 · Nov 28, 2015

Albion said:
No, it's Socialism that retains an elective system.

Wrong. Sorry, but that's not correct.

Social democracy does not advocate for government ownership of property, citizens and the means of production, or a centralized government-controlled and planned economy, as described in socialism. It doesn’t call for a bloody, political revolution or the abolition of money and government as a whole, as described in communism. It doesn’t believe in wage caps or infringing on the fundamental freedoms and rights of its people.

And it especially doesn’t believe in a dictatorship or any type of authoritarian government.

Social democracy believes that capitalism is the most reliable economic system for generating wealth, but that the system itself is hampered by its unfortunate byproducts of poverty and inequality. To make up for these weaknesses, the state should engage in economic and social interventions; in other words, when the government intervenes in economic or social affairs to correct their failures and promote the general welfare.

According to some studies,the U.S. spends 50% more on corporate welfare than it does on traditional social welfare– $92 billion. Where is the outrage over such violations of “free market capitalism”? Where is the outrage over the vulture capitalism, feeding off the carcass of the American middle class and returning the scraps to the rich?

Republicans hate “socialism” when it benefits the poor and middle class, but completely embrace it when it benefits their corporate donors

When older people think of socialism, they tend to (incorrectly) associate it with totalitarianism. In fact, socialist democracies are the norm in Europe

The truth is, the United States already embraces many elements of democratic socialism, including healthcare, education, labor unions, and more. These are the things that have made our country great over the years, and have protected the interests of the working people against the excesses of corporate greed.

Albion · Nov 28, 2015

Mary7 said:
Social democracy does not advocate for government ownership of property

Socialism does, however, and that's what we were speaking about.

The Lifelong Republicans Who Love Bernie Sanders

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Newbie

Mabaho na Kuya

That's grasping after the wind

Facilitator

dog lover

Stranger in a Strange Land

Well-Known Member

Facilitator

Active Member

Bigby, Reid, and Z

Born Imperishable

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Facilitator

Facilitator

Well-Known Member

Facilitator

Similar threads