Saturday Politics : the Democratic Party Is Socialist

It's Saturday politics. This week, it's the Democratic Party that's in troubled waters. ~~~~~ R. T. Rybak, a vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee and the former mayor of Minneapolis, told the New York Times that after “flat-out not true” comments from DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, he had doubts about her ability to run the organization. Rybak called Wasserman Schultz the equivalent of a liar on Thursday, as the organization was in turmoil over the presidential primary process. ~~~~~ What is it all about? Earlier this week, when Representative Tulsi Gabbard, another DNC vice chair, publicly asked Wasserman Schultz for more debates than the six scheduled, she says that she was told she’d been uninvited from the debate. Wasserman Schultz told CNN that Gabbard’s statements were “simply not true.” On Thursday, Rybak added weight to his version, telling the NYT’s Maggie Haberman he was stunned that Wasserman Schultz “would knowingly say something that is flat-out not true.” Rybak said Wasserman Schultzied when she insisted that she had consulted with DNC officials, saying that they had not been consulted about the small number of debates with Democrat presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and others. The NYT also reported that Amy Dacey, the DNC chief of staff, confirmed Rybak and Gabbard’s account, saying that vice chairmen were “notified,” but not consulted as part of the decision making process. ~~~~~ The DNC internal fight occurred around last Tuesday’s Democrat presidential debate, in which Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley, Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee gave their plans for America. Webb was the quasi-Republican - he really ought to consider why he remains a Democrat. Chafee promised to “close the gap” between the haves and have nots - without one detail about how he would do it except to shut down everything that causes "climate change." O'Malley touted his Maryland record - one that left the state so vulnerable as to lead to the Baltimore racial upheaval. Self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders decried the rigging of the American economy to favor the 1% - his solution is to break up banks and shut down Wall Street, the US seat of world financial markets. We all can agree that Bernie's proposals would shut down everything for 100% of the world. Hillary Clinton promised to “save capitalism from itself” and address “the kind of inequalities we’re seeing in our economic system” - Hillary obviously skipped reading the part of 20th century history that documents the failure of centrally controlled distribution of wealth to achieve equality, an approach known as socialism or USSR Communism. But, we also know Hillary never lets facts influence what she says. ~~~~~ The Wall Street Journal noted, “The end of a two-term Presidency is typically a time for taking credit, celebrating achievements and promising to continue successful policies." But, the debaters never mentioned anything positive achieved by Obama in 8 years. They reflected Obama's and the Democrats' failure : a near-doubling of the national debt that under Obama has soared from 60% to over 100% of GDP, a crisis point for anybody but Democrats. O'Malley noted the shrinking middle class : “Our poor families are becoming poorer, and 70% of us are earning the same, or less, than we were 12 years ago. We need new leadership, and we need action.” He should have said 8 years because 12 years ago under President Bush the middle class did well. When debate moderator Anderson Cooper asked how they would differ from Obama, the candidates offered more Obama - a “right” to government health care; amnesty and Obamacare for all illegal immigrants; free college tuition for all (even the UK has halted this); paid family leave; and a $15 minimum wage. ~~~~~ Dear readers, the Democratic Party's socialist ideas may sound good. But they lead inevitably to drab Soviet tenements, subsistence-level state-controlled jobs and elite-led government, with citizens searching for a way out to freedom. That is Socialism. Do not be fooled.