Bernie Sanders: What Democratic Socialism Means To Me

On Thursday afternoon, in a speech that can only be described as passionate, yet supremely logical, Bernie Sanders delivered the most important speech of his 40-plus years in public service. At times he was soft-spoken while at others, his voiced crescendoed with conviction, Sanders stood at the podium at Georgetown University, his shoulders hunched, his hands fidgeting on the edges, as he introduced a new generation to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s brand of Democratic Socialism.

He started out the gate by describing a scenario that many can identify with today: FDR’s inauguration speech from 1937.

“In his inaugural remarks in January 1937, in the midst of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt looked out at the nation and this is what he saw.

“He saw tens of millions of its citizens denied the basic necessities of life.

“He saw millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hung over them day by day.

“He saw millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children.

“He saw millions lacking the means to buy the products they needed and by their poverty and lack of disposable income denying employment to many other millions.

“He saw one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.

“And he acted. Against the ferocious opposition of the ruling class of his day, people he called economic royalists, Roosevelt implemented a series of programs that put millions of people back to work, took them out of poverty and restored their faith in government…He combatted cynicism, fear, and despair. He reinvigorated democracy. He transformed the country.

“And that is what we have to to do today.”

The programs, he reminded his audience, were called “socialist.”

Social Security, a minimum wage, abolishing child labor, a 40-hour work week, unions and collective bargaining, job programs, banking regulations and deposit insurance. Those were considered radical and socialist ideas in Roosevelt’s time, but Bernie Sanders argues, they became an important part of the United States and helped build up the middle class.

When President Johnson passed Medicare and Medicaid, it was yet another radical socialist concept. Yet this radical idea, which came to fruition, provided health care to the most vulnerable and needy people in our nations: senior citizens, children, and the disabled. Again, Bernie Sanders reminded his audience, the right wing mocked these programs, calling them a “threat to our American way of life.” And yet, they have become a very necessary part of life in this country — an effective form of Democratic socialism — and Republicans still continue to hammer away at it in attempts to strip away the very basic services of Americans who desperately need them.

For example, newly minted Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, benefited from his late father’s Social Security benefits. This money helped to put him through college. And yet he continues to propose cuts in the program, putting the economic security of millions of people in jeopardy. In October, Bernie Sanders called him out, arguing that veterans’ and Social Security benefits ought to be expanded, not cut.

On his official senate website, Bernie Sanders argues that cuts would be devastating to veterans and surviving spouses, especially when those cuts would come in order to pay for increased defense spending.

“Every major veterans organization in the country has been very clear on this issue. They are vigorously opposed to enacting a chained-CPI which would slash benefits for millions of disabled veterans and surviving spouse.”

Further on in Bernie’s speech, he quoted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., one of Sanders’ heroes of the Civil Rights Movement.

“This country has socialism for the rich, and rugged individualism for the poor.”

What does this mean? It means that the top one percent of this country has more wealth than the bottom 90 percent of the Americans put together. It means that while big banks get trillions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks, while billionaire CEOs get bonuses for bringing down the economy, 90 percent of Americans are footing the bill.

“True freedom does not occur without economic security.”

Sanders hammered home this notion of freedom with amazing brevity.

“People are not truly free when they are unable to feed their family. People are not truly free when they are unable to retire with dignity. People are not truly free when they are unemployed or underpaid or when they are exhausted by working long hours. People are not truly free when they have no health care.”

He mentioned something that hits home for millions of people: That when a person stays in a job he hates because the health insurance is good, he is not truly free. It also suppresses innovation because people don’t have the economic security to go out and do things differently. This, Bernie argues, is the basis for his belief in Democratic Socialism.

“Democratic Socialism means that we must create an economy that works for all, not just the wealthy.

“Democratic socialism means that we must reform a political system in America today which is not only grossly unfair but, in many respects, corrupt. In my view, it’s time we had democratic socialism for working families, not just Wall Street, billionaires and large corporations.

“It means that health care should be a right of all people, not a privilege. This is not a radical idea. It exists in every other major country on earth. Not just Denmark, Sweden or Finland. It exists in Canada, France, Germany and Taiwan.”

Bernie Sanders continued to drive home the fact that the United States is the only major country in the world, the only wealthy country, that does not provide guaranteed health care for all. He emphasized that the United States does not guarantee parents any kind of paid medical leave after the birth of a child, a claim Politifact rates as “Mostly True.” In an even more damning piece of evidence, the only other nation in the world on record that does not offer any form of guaranteed paid family leave is Papua New Guinea.

Even Mexico, which Americans habitually deride as backwards, offers 12 weeks paid maternal leave and one week paid paternal leave. Canada offers 15 weeks of paid maternal leave but no paternal leave.

In case there was ever any doubt, @Georgetown is stoked for #BernieAtGU. Many people have been in line since 6 am! pic.twitter.com/LZXdnd1wgt

— Georgetown Institute of Politics & Public Service (@GUPolitics) November 19, 2015

Not only this, Bernie Sanders continued, if a person works 40 hours per week, that person should not be living in poverty. And hundreds of thousands of people agree with him. Although still quite early in the campaign process, Sanders can boast more than 750,000 donors, all of whom have given the Sanders campaign an average of about $30 per donation.

But his campaign isn’t just a campaign. It is a movement, a political revolution, he reminds his audience.

Nick Hanauer, an early investor in Amazon, warned his “fellow plutocrats” that the pitchforks are coming in a Politico op-ed in which he urged the return of FDR-era policies, which are essentially Bernie Sanders’ Democratic Socialist policies.

As Bernie Sanders completed his appearance to a standing ovation, his message remains as true as it was when he fought for civil rights more than 50-years ago: Each person, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, economic or social standing deserves the same opportunities as his wealthy counterpart.

To read Bernie Sanders’ full speech, Vox.com has a complete transcript. UStream also has the full speech along with Bernie’s subsequent question and answer portion.

[Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images]