Comrade Bernie Sanders the self-described socialist Senator from Vermont gave the keynote speech at the Democratic Socialists of America's convention in Atlanta.Here's a
link to the speech.We'll give some excerpts just so you can know how extreme Comrade Sanders can get.Here's Senator Sanders (page 5):
I want to thank the DSA(Democratic Socialists of America) for the support they gave me in the last campaign.And I want to thank DSA,not only for what they are doing today,but also keeping alive what in my view is the most important vision that we as human beings can hold.It's a vision that has been passed on from generation to generation,literally for thousands of years: the vision of peace,the vision of brotherhood.Nothing new;it's in the Bible.But to remember the work,the sacrifices of people like Eugene V. Debs,Frederick Douglass,to remember Norman Thomas,Michael Harrington,and to remember a man who is buried in this city itself,one of the great Americans of the 20th century,Martin Luther King Jr.And what was that vision? That radical but simple vision is solidarity.It means that all of us are in this thing called life together,that if we work together,if we share together,all of us can prosper and do well.And that when we reach out to other people, rather to say "me,me,me," we grow as human beings.And the vision tells us peace is better than war,that greed should not be the dominant factor in our society today,and that people can come together beyond race and creed and country of origin to create a very different world than the world we live in today.
and this outright appeal to socialism(page 6):
When we talk about democratic socialism,we look in pride at what has gone on in many European and Scandinavian countries that barely ever gets mentioned in the media.If you look at issues like education,throughout those countries,college education is virtually free,because they understand that today,a college education is what a college education was 50 years ago; they want you to get an education,not only for yourself but your country.
Comrade Sanders wants a different media landscape(page 7):
We have fewer and fewer owners in America,and this handful of corporations,to a very significant degree own and control what the American people see,hear and read.When you turn on the TV,you can see more than you ever wanted to see about Britney Spears and Paris Hilton; you can see football games till the cows come home,but somehow or other there's very little discussion carried about what's happened to the middle class.When's the last program you saw about the growing gap between rich and poor? Have you ever in your life seen a program on television talking about the benefits of trade unionism? You don't see those things.Somehow you've got 800 TV stations on the local cable,but a few companies own them all.They've got probably six companies that control almost all the media,but they think that's too diverse.They want to deregulate it even more.And we've got to stop them.
We have to focus on this issue of the media,so when you turn on the radio you can hear something other than Rush Limbaugh.So that when you turn on the television,maybe you can see some real reflection of the lives of the American people,rather than just the rich and famous.And maybe you can see some vision of solidarity,rather than Survivor,where it's me against you.Maybe a program where we're in it together.But we have to take a hard look at corporate control over the media and see what we can do to have a media focus on localism.
and just to remind everyone what the agenda is about(page 8):
But what we have got to do,and I'll do my job on the floor of the Senate,and you will work as hard or harder in your unions and communities,is we have got to educate the American people;and I want everyone here to understand that if anybody came here and said "Oh,democratic socialists,very radical idea"- what we are talking about is not radical.
So what's the goal of the Democratic Socialists of America? Their
website states it clearly:
We are socialists because we reject an international economic order sustained by private profit
These are Senator Bernie Sanders values.It's seems young people hate Vermont because it's a horrible place to raise a family.As the
The New York Times reports:
Not long ago, Ray Pentkowski, the principal of Poultney Elementary School, published an unusual request in the school newsletter. Please, he urged parents, have more babies. The school desperately needs them.
He was half joking, but the problem is real. His school, down to 208 children, has lost a third of its student population since 1999 and must cut staff levels, he said, "for the first time in my memory."
Poultney, a town of 3,600 bordering New York, is just one example of a situation that increasingly alarms many in Vermont. This state of beautiful mountains and popular ski resorts, once a magnet for back-to-the-landers, is losing young people at a precipitous clip.
Vermont, with a population of about 620,000, now has the lowest birth rate among states. Three-quarters of its public schools have lost children since 2000.
Vermont also has the highest rate of students attending college out of their home state — 57 percent, up from 36 percent 20 years ago. Many do not move back. The total number of 20- to 34-year-olds in Vermont has shrunk by 19 percent since 1990.
Vermont's governor, Jim Douglas, is treating the situation like a crisis. He proposes making Vermont the "Silicon Valley" of environmental technology companies to lure businesses and workers; giving college scholarships requiring students to stay in Vermont for three years after graduating; relaxing once-sacrosanct environmentally driven building restrictions in some areas to encourage more housing; and campaigning in high schools and elementary schools to encourage students "to focus now on making a plan to stay in Vermont," said Jason Gibbs, a spokesman for Mr. Douglas.
Mr. Douglas said: "There's an exodus of young people. It's dramatic. We need to reverse it. The consequences of not acting are severe."
While Vermont's population of young people shrinks, the number of older residents is multiplying because Vermont increasingly attracts retirees from other states. It is now the second-oldest state, behind Maine. Arthur Woolf, an economist at the University of Vermont, said that by 2030, there would be only two working-age Vermonters for every retiree.
Here's
more on Vermont's "out-migration".Here's a
video of Barack Obama supporting Comrade Bernie Sanders for Senator.
