How Bernie Sanders Can Lose

By Brian Dann

If you'ld like to read this go right ahead, but I should let you know the first part of this is pretty much directed straight to Bernie Sanders. Bernie, if you want to be elected President, stop saying out loud that you are a Socialist. And saying that you are a DEMOCRATIC Socialist does not make anyone who is not a supporter of you say to themselves, “Ohhh, a DEMOCRATIC socialist. Well that’s better.” All they hear is Socialist and to most Americans, whose education ranks 35th in the world in math and 27th in science (12 places below Macau! Seriously, Macau!? I’ve never even heard of Macau, but then again I went to school in America), Socialist means the same thing to them as Communist, Marxist, Fascist or any other evil ‘ist out there. And to Google the word “socialism” to clarify what you are does not help your case in any way. Here is what comes up:

so.cial.ism
/ˈsōSHəˌlizəm/
noun

1. A political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
   Synonyms:  leftism, welfarism; radicalism, progressivism, social democracy; communism, Marxism, labor movement.
2. Policy or practice based on the political and economic theory of socialism.
3. (in Marxist theory) a transitional social state between the overthrow of capitalism and the realization of communism.
   

 

Seriously dude! STOP IT!  People are Googling this to figure out who the hell this Bernie Sanders guy is and seeing “overthrow of capitalism” and “realization of communism”! This is straight from Google. It’s the first thing that comes up!  Seriously, try it yourself, I’m not making this shit up!  If I was any one of your opponents I would simply run a video of you saying that you are a Socialist, with that definition overlaid on the screen right next to your head with a picture of Karl Marx and wait for inauguration day. The truth is you are not a Marxist, or a Communist, and no matter what you say, I am starting to doubt that you are even a Socialist.  Wanting to institute common sense policies that would strengthen our economy, increase the income of all U.S. citizens, not just the top 1%, make us more competitive in the world market place, make us better educated, healthier, give small businesses a fighting chance and big businesses more profits, sounds a lot like a capitalist to me, a capitalist with common sense programs that benefits all of us not just the wealthy. To use our government to institute programs, policies and regulations that better our nation and benefit our citizens within it, does not make one a Socialist, it makes one a leader.

Bernie, people overwhelmingly get your message.  They get that most of the wealth goes to the top 1% and the rest of us get screwed.  They get that we are the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee health care to 100% of it’s citizens and how ridiculous it is that even with Obamacare, millions of Americans still have no access to health care except for an emergency room.  They get that Wall Street is unregulated and out of control. They get that college is way too expensive and our graduates are drowning is trillions of debt.  They get that climate change is real and it is man made and something must be done.

But what most Americans just don’t get is the true extent that all of this is destroying our country and exactly how your policies could truly change this nation.  That is what they need to hear.  They need to hear HOW, how what you want to do will make everything better for everyone.  How even with our taxes raised, we will have thousands more in our pockets than we do now?  How Single Payer will do more then just give us all access to health care but would actually save our economy.  How providing free college education will actually raise our overall GDP and increase our wealth.  How making college free and forgiving the college loans that currently exist will instantly inject millions of dollars into our economy.  Bernie, what we need to know is how, and that you will do everything you can to make it happen. But doing nothing except complaining about everything that is wrong without giving any specifics as to how you can change it, makes you look, dare I say, more like Donald Trump than Bernie Sanders, and you seriously do not have the hair to pull that off.   And if you keep being so proud that you are a Democratic Socialist, it won't matter how many speeches you give to define Democratic Socialism, it won't matter how much you talk about substance and policy, it won’t matter how right you are, and how everything that you want to do would actually be the best thing that could ever happen to this country.   Too many undecided will hear nothing except Socialist, Marxist, Communist, ‘ist, ‘ist, ‘ist… and you will lose.

And now to the rest of you...Bern, baby Bern!