by Robert M. Traxler
Quite frankly I must admit to being confused with the apparent hypocrisy of at least one of the Democrats running for President of the United States. Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders denounce the rich and the unfairness of income inequality between the rich and the “people.”
Contrary to liberal belief, affluent folks are indeed people. The purveyors of class warfare must dehumanize the 15 million in the top 10% of the income brackets (Senator Sanders’ $174,000 Senate salary renders him a 10%er) to allow most voters to see the well off as less than human and as the enemy of the everyday person.
If tomorrow you or a family member developed the new fad smart phone app and became rich, $149,000 in income per year, are you then inhuman? Are you now one to be hated by the people? The day you deposit the check do you automatically become an oppressor of the regular man, oops my bad, regular person?
Hate is not a good thing but it is very politically correct to hate the rich. You may not know them and if you met then on the street would probable like them, but liberal/progressive Holy Grail is that they are all bad, even criminal and inhuman, who must be punished for crimes against the people.
Senator Sanders can with complete honesty say he hates the affluent and feels we need a socialist revolution along the lines of the French Revolution of the 18th century. After the revolution, a mass killings of French citizens was conducted: 8% royals, 6% priests and nuns and 86% middle and peasant class (guilty of profiteering and hoarding).
Senator Sanders is not especially rich and does not worship at the altar of the rich and powerful, so he can denounce the rich and influential with complete honesty. I do not like his preaching class warfare and I would never vote for him, but I do respect his belief in his cause.
Secretary Clinton on the other hand is a monumental hypocrite: paid $3,610.00 per minute to give speeches to Goldman Sachs, a multi-national Wall Street investment banking firm, yet she denounces income inequality. Mrs. Clinton made as much in 16 minutes as the average American family makes in a year. In three hours of work she was paid enough to become a 1%er. Good for her, she can demand that much and got it, she is an accomplished capitalist and that is impressive, if you are a supporter of capitalism.
But Mrs. Clinton denounces capitalism as unfair and oppressive; got to wonder how all that works. Mrs. Clinton’s personal net worth is an estimated $31, 300,000. Her family’s net worth is estimated at $111,300,000. An outstanding achievement for a believer in our free market capitalistic system, or an example of income inequality, you decide.
Senator Bernie Sanders’ net worth of $528,014 is much less than Mrs. Clinton made in three hours at Goldman Sacks.
Secretary Clinton, to her credit, has raised $224,000,000 for her campaign, a large amount of it from the evil, maniacal, oppressive capitalists who are referred to as Wall Street. Senator Sanders will not accept large amounts from the rich and powerful, whom he also describes as evil.
The Republicans, with the exception of Donald Trump, all have taken millions from the rich and powerful, and decry the “Washington political class.” However, all with the exception of Mr. Trump are all members of the professional political class. Republicans accepting millions from the folks at the corner of Broad and Wall Street is not as hypocritical as most Democrats who condemn capitalism while drinking champagne with and pocketing millions from capitalists.
Many of the good folks who support Senator Sanders could not define what Democratic Socialism is; they cite free stuff as the reason they support him, with free higher education as the main reason for their support. “When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic.” This quote is attributed to a large number of people from the early days of our nation, Ben Franklin being one, but it is getting closer to reality every day.
I do sincerely hope Mr. Trump and Senator Sanders get their political parties’ nominations and we get a clear choice between Free Enterprise Democracy and Democratic Socialism. Unfortunately, both candidates are seen as a threat to the excessively powerful media and political establishments — who are working hard to bury them both in the back pages of history.
