Bernie on foreign policy

A clear presentation of some of his views.

On the whole, I see no objection to inequality per se and regard it as a natural and inevitable feature of capitalism, the "system of natural liberty" that is the best way to organize economic life.

In fact, I think the stop-at-nothing pursuit of equality motivated by hatred of the rich has brought about most of the political disasters of the 20th Century.

But I agree this is a shocker.

There is no moral or economic justification for the six wealthiest people in the world having as much wealth as the bottom half of the world’s population – 3.7 billion people. 

Is that even true, that "the six wealthiest people in the world" have "as much wealth as the bottom half of the world’s population – 3.7 billion people"?

Wow.

Anyway, in a man suspect of being soft on communism, this in his speech, quoting a part of Churchill's Iron Curtain speech with approval, is adroit.

(Bernie later in the speech handles his "sister cities" problem with equal adroitness.)

Almost 70 years ago, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill stood on this stage and gave an historic address, known as the “Iron Curtain” speech, in which he framed a conception of world affairs that endured through the 20th century, until the collapse of the Soviet Union. 

In that speech, he defined his strategic concept as quote “nothing less than the safety and welfare, the freedom and progress, of all the homes and families of all the men and women in all the lands.”

“To give security to these countless homes,” he said, “they must be shielded from the two giant marauders, war and tyranny.”

How do we meet that challenge today? 

How do we fight for the “freedom and progress” that Churchill talked about in the year 2017? 

At a time of exploding technology and wealth, how do we move away from a world of war, terrorism and massive levels of poverty into a world of peace and economic security for all?

How do we move toward a global community in which people have the decent jobs, food, clean water, education, health care and housing they need?

. . . .

Today the Soviet Union no longer exists.

Today we face threats of a different sort. 

We will never forget 9/11. 

We are cognizant of the terrible attacks that have taken place in capitals all over the world. 

We are more than aware of the brutality of ISIS, Al Qaeda, and similar groups.


We also face the threat of these groups obtaining weapons of mass destruction, and preventing that must be a priority.

. . . .

A great concern that I have today is that many in our country are losing faith in our common future and in our democratic values.

For far too many of our people, here in the United States and people all over the world, the promises of self-government -- of government by the people, for the people, and of the people -- have not been kept. 

And people are losing faith.

In the United States and other countries, a majority of people are working longer hours for lower wages than they used to. 

They see big money buying elections, and they see a political and economic elite growing wealthier, even as their own children’s future grows dimmer.


So when we talk about foreign policy, and our belief in democracy, at the very top of our list of concerns is the need to revitalize American democracy to ensure that governmental decisions reflect the interests of a majority of our people, and not just the few – whether that few is Wall Street, the military industrial complex, or the fossil fuel industry. 

We cannot convincingly promote democracy abroad if we do not live it vigorously here at home.

It is true that liberals broadly favor the democratic features of modern states because they enable the people to defend and advance their interests against the rich.

But nothing guarantees they will do that, and democracy also enables demagogy, and has enabled popular support for anti-democratic political movements in the past such as fascism, Nazism, and Communism.

People famous for themselves playing the demagogue, vigorously denouncing "the system", the parties, and various features of our constitutional government as "rigged", are not in the best position to give lectures warning us about the people losing faith in democracy.

The effrontery of their doing so is more than a little offensive.

Still, though much else that Bernie says about the struggle between democracy and authoritarianism is good, he signs up quite explicitly for a too lefty version of globalism and immediately goes on to rehearse his sometimes wrong-headed, peacenik Cold War convictions.

Interestingly, while he deplores the Invasion of Iraq as the worst error of recent times, he never cites the earlier war to overthrow Taliban Afghanistan as an error.

And this is not only wrong but dangerous.

Inequality, corruption, oligarchy and authoritarianism are inseparable. They must be understood as part of the same system, and fought in the same way.