Will Bernie Sanders' long-ago praise of Socialist regimes hurt Democrats in November?

[Uber Genius]

My interest here is to hear from non-Christians and Christians alike who support Bernie. Since other political forums are Christian-only, and this is current news as of yesterday, I posted it here.

By Ken Dilanian and Dan De Luce (NBC News)


"WASHINGTON — In October 1985, a few months after Bernie Sanders traveled to Nicaragua to celebrate the sixth anniversary of that country's socialist revolution, the Soviet-backed government suspended the civil liberties of its citizens, including the rights to free speech, free assembly and labor strikes."

For article see: Will Sanders' past praise of Socialist regimes hurt Democrats?

 

[tulc]

It will probably only matter to people who were never going to vote for him in the first place.
tulc(just a thought)

 

[Silmarien]

I support Warren rather than Sanders, partly due to issues like this one, but I still intend to vote for him in the general election (and possibly in the primary, if the centrists go for Bloomberg).

I think it could hurt him, but no more than Trump's current support for authoritarian regimes. Sanders has the advantage of an enthusiastic support base that other Democrats do not, though, so it's hard to see how this would tip the balance against him.

 

[usexpat97]

My interest here is to hear from non-Christians and Christians alike who support Bernie.

I neither support nor not support Bernie. That being said...

Will Bernie Sanders' long-ago praise of Socialist regimes hurt Democrats in November?

Yes.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

People will vote their pocketbooks. Sanders policies will hurt the majority of voters in the wallet. Given that fact he doesn't have much of a chance. Much of his support is from younger idealistic voters who haven't much experience in the real world. They are also the demographic with the poorest voting turnout record.

 

[ArmenianJohn]

My interest here is to hear from non-Christians and Christians alike who support Bernie. Since other political forums are Christian-only, and this is current news as of yesterday, I posted it here.

Well you won't be hearing from non-Christians here since this forum is under "Discussion and Debate (Christians Only)"...

By Ken Dilanian and Dan De Luce (NBC News)


"WASHINGTON — In October 1985, a few months after Bernie Sanders traveled to Nicaragua to celebrate the sixth anniversary of that country's socialist revolution, the Soviet-backed government suspended the civil liberties of its citizens, including the rights to free speech, free assembly and labor strikes."

For article see: Will Sanders' past praise of Socialist regimes hurt Democrats?

Nothing will hurt Bernie. The people who hate him will use this to continue to hate him and the people who like him will see this as the smokescreen nonsense that it is.

Bernie is the frontrunner in the Democratic Party to be the nominee.

 

[Silmarien]

People will vote their pocketbooks. Sanders policies will hurt the majority of voters in the wallet. Given that fact he doesn't have much of a chance. Much of his support is from younger idealistic voters who haven't much experience in the real world. They are also the demographic with the poorest voting turnout record.

Yeah, the millennials with $100,000 in student loans are totally supporting Sanders because they care more about idealism than the real world.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Yeah, the millennials with $100,000 in student loans are totally supporting Sanders because they care more about idealism than the real world.

Very few carry that much student loan debt. The average debt is around $30,000. They believe, in their ideal world, they shouldn't have to pay it back (plus getting other free stuff), thus their support for Bernie.

 

[usexpat97]

Very few carry that much student loan debt. The average debt is around $30,000.

You just reinforced Silmarien's point. Big-time.

They believe, in their ideal world, they shouldn't have to pay it back (plus getting other free stuff), thus their support for Bernie.

Surely you can see that some have a genuine philosophical issue with it. It's the belief that society should pay it back, for the education they pumped into their young talent base. Thus we all pay-it-forward back, for the education we got. The taxpayer base makes an investment into the future taxpayer-base's education--who then in turn, fund the next. As opposed to the wealthy getting to fund the rich kids' future, thus locking society into just another hereditary social caste system. Just because it's socialist doesn't make it selfish, greedy, entitled or wrong. Capitalism faces all the same accusations.

 

[Silmarien]

Very few carry that much student loan debt. The average debt is around $30,000. They believe, in their ideal world, they shouldn't have to pay it back (plus getting other free stuff), thus their support for Bernie.

Welcome to grad school in the United States. I had $65,000 after law school, but I know people who had $100,000 or even more. I live at home, so I don't have to pay rent and was able to pretty much spend virtually my entire income on it to pay it off before getting crushed too badly by the 6% interest rate, but a lot of people don't have that option.

I could say, "Well, I had to pay it off, so you should too," but frankly, our whole system is broken. Practically a whole generation has been destroyed economically, and conservatives just complain about why people aren't buying houses, marrying, and having children. Because apparently that's an option if you can barely pay off more than the interest rate on your student loan.

 

[Aldebaran]

My interest here is to hear from non-Christians and Christians alike who support Bernie. Since other political forums are Christian-only, and this is current news as of yesterday, I posted it here.

By Ken Dilanian and Dan De Luce (NBC News)


"WASHINGTON — In October 1985, a few months after Bernie Sanders traveled to Nicaragua to celebrate the sixth anniversary of that country's socialist revolution, the Soviet-backed government suspended the civil liberties of its citizens, including the rights to free speech, free assembly and labor strikes."

For article see: Will Sanders' past praise of Socialist regimes hurt Democrats?

It seems to be helping him get Russia's support: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...d396a6-54bd-11ea-929a-64efa7482a77_story.html

 

[grasping the after wind]

Yeah, the millennials with $100,000 in student loans are totally supporting Sanders because they care more about idealism than the real world.

Those loans prove they don't have a clue about the real world. I won't comment about any idealism on their part as I have no evidence to suggest it either does or doesn't exist.

 

[Silmarien]

Those loans prove they don't have a clue about the real world. I won't comment about any idealism on their part as I have no evidence to suggest it either does or doesn't exist.

Yeah, people don't realize that academia is broken and that their graduate degree is basically just going to be a piece of paper until it's too late to back out.

Their first experience of the "real world" is certainly being crushed under enormous debt, though, so that's not exactly youthful idealism detached from practical concerns.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Welcome to grad school in the United States. I had $65,000 after law school, but I know people who had $100,000 or even more. I live at home, so I don't have to pay rent and was able to pretty much spend virtually my entire income on it to pay it off before getting crushed too badly by the 6% interest rate, but a lot of people don't have that option.

I could say, "Well, I had to pay it off, so you should too," but frankly, our whole system is broken. Practically a whole generation has been destroyed economically, and conservatives just complain about why people aren't buying houses, marrying, and having children. Because apparently that's an option if you can barely pay off more than the interest rate on your student loan.

So tell me why are kids are still borrowing money to go to college? And regardless of what some owe the average debt is a mere $30,000. Peanuts when you consider that college grads will earn a $million more in their lifetime than us mere mortals (who are being asked to pay off most of their loans for them).

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Just because it's socialist doesn't make it selfish, greedy, entitled or wrong. Capitalism faces all the same accusations.

All of those elements are present in the problem...plus stupid.

 

[hedrick]

Well you won't be hearing from non-Christians here since this forum is under "Discussion and Debate (Christians Only)"...


Nothing will hurt Bernie. The people who hate him will use this to continue to hate him and the people who like him will see this as the smokescreen nonsense that it is.

Bernie is the frontrunner in the Democratic Party to be the nominee.

Yeah. He's like Trump: problems won't affect him because people who support him support him as a symbol for specific policies and approaches.

But it's him and a bunch of more moderate people. Unless he gets more than 50% on the first ballot, in successive ballots the others will slowly fall out and their votes will go to others. It's quite possible that he'll get the nomination, but I don't think it's obvious.

 

[Silmarien]

So tell me why are kids are still borrowing money to go to college? And regardless of what some owe the average debt is a mere $30,000. Peanuts when you consider that college grads will earn a $million more in their lifetime than us mere mortals (who are being asked to pay off most of their loans for them).

"A mere $30,000" at an average interest rate of 4.53% means paying $1,359 a year in interest alone. If someone doesn't have the resources to pay off the principal, that is the minimum they would need to pay annually to keep the debt from growing even larger.

Looking at an amortization schedule, if you want to pay that off in 10 years, that's going to involve monthly payments of $311. Your total interest paid at the end would be $7360, so about a quarter of the actual loan you took out. A 20 year plan would involve $190 monthly payments, but if my math is right, the total interest paid in the end would be $15,770. That's more than half of the original debt.

The average salary for a college graduate is about $50,000, which in my state would be about $3300 a month after taxes. To continue with the New York estimates, let's say you're spending $1800 of that in rent and $500 on food a month, which leaves you with $1000 a month. That is not including utilities, phone and internet, etc. Much less something like car insurance.

The $311 a month 10 year amortization plan is probably not feasible at this point, which means you're going to get killed by the interest.

We're not talking about peanuts, even with a $30,000 loan.

 

[redleghunter]

My interest here is to hear from non-Christians and Christians alike who support Bernie. Since other political forums are Christian-only, and this is current news as of yesterday, I posted it here.

By Ken Dilanian and Dan De Luce (NBC News)


"WASHINGTON — In October 1985, a few months after Bernie Sanders traveled to Nicaragua to celebrate the sixth anniversary of that country's socialist revolution, the Soviet-backed government suspended the civil liberties of its citizens, including the rights to free speech, free assembly and labor strikes."

For article see: Will Sanders' past praise of Socialist regimes hurt Democrats?

My opinion is this will matter to the Democratic Party superdelegates. That’s why Bernie will not get the nomination if he does not win the delegates outright.

 

[lordjeff]

My interest here is to hear from non-Christians and Christians alike who support Bernie. Since other political forums are Christian-only, and this is current news as of yesterday, I posted it here.

By Ken Dilanian and Dan De Luce (NBC News)


"WASHINGTON — In October 1985, a few months after Bernie Sanders traveled to Nicaragua to celebrate the sixth anniversary of that country's socialist revolution, the Soviet-backed government suspended the civil liberties of its citizens, including the rights to free speech, free assembly and labor strikes."

For article see: Will Sanders' past praise of Socialist regimes hurt Democrats?

Bernie is more than a socialist. He is a communist-politically & very much economically. He justs uses the democratic label to caucus. If he used communist, people would flee. They should flee now but voters fall for false labels & false idols.

 

[hedrick]

Bernie is more than a socialist. He is a communist-politically & very much economically. He justs uses the democratic label to caucus. If he used communist, people would flee. They should flee now but voters fall for false labels & false idols.

He has certainly said things in the past to support that. But I haven't seen signs of admiring communist governments in the last few decades.

I also haven't seen signs of wanting to nationalize areas beyond what European democracies have done.

That's not my problem with him. It doesn't seem that he's been effective as a Senator, and I don't see any indications that he belongs as President. I also think he doesn't stand a chance of election.

But my estimation about election could be wrong. I thought the same of Trump. It's possible that someone who can excite a substantial number of voters can win. He seems to have the same immunity to negative information. His followers don't care, and in a general election lots of people would consider him the lesser evil.