A hero, a nation's conscience, everything he predicted has come true

Communism is a stateless society. Those nations follow the Marxist-Leninist doctrine created by Stalin. Which espouses to seize control of government as a holding action to eventually transition to a communist society. This could be totalitarian like North Korea, or a parliamentary system like Vietnam.

But I don’t see any consistency with the right in opposing central government. Since most, at least on this board, are in lockstep with the current government.

 

I agree with you in part about the right, especially when it comes to those who wish to use a strong central government to impose their religious doctrine. These people are as bad as the worst liberal/progressive/socialist in their desire to use Fed.gov to suppress individual rights. Most, though, desire a weaker central government as long as they keep our borders secure.

But don't kid yourself about Vietnam. I realize many leftists use that country as an example of doing communism right – as if there could be such a thing – but Vietnam is as repressive as the worst totalitarian government. It might as well be Germany with the Nazis or the Soviet Union or Cambodia or any government that is a one-party state that has a monopoly on power and wishes to never give it up.

Don't believe me? Then at least read what Human Rights Watch says:

https://www.hrw.org/asia/vietnam

 

I believe you, no nation escapes the Human Rights Watch. The point was just to illustrate what communism means as a political philosophy compared to the national governments that have a communist ideology.


The problems with the left/right comes with having two opposite factions. Naturally, each faction has their centralized/authoritarian side and their more decentralized/democratic side. We should really have at least 4 parties, but then we'd have a choice, instead of the illusion of it.

Yes, we have alternate parties. However, the Democrats and Republicans have a major stranglehold on the function of politics, and actively work to minimize the influence of alternatives.

 

You can always tell when a leftist has run out of arguements. They always turn right to calling everyone that doesnt agree with them a racist.

 

In terms of sheer numbers, the US Gulag is greater than any of the rest.

 

Can you point out where I called you a racist? No, you cannot.

When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.

Being aware of reality regarding the de facto state of racial equality, as opposed to the de jure status is not racism.

 

Because...
"That would be because most of his ideas are unworkable, stupid or just plain silly when they aren't all three."

But Garyd already pointed that out. Actually, he was very generous; Bernie is nowhere close to that level of capacity.

If Bernie wasn't a politician of rabble rouser and had to be productive and useful to support himself, he would be on welfare.
He is on welfare of in a way now; does nothing of value and takes money he didn't earn or deserve for it.

 

I salute your insight; and for steeping to the plate with the honest truth.
We have indeed made young children into adult children by failing to require them to become self-responsible men and women.
When we earn it, we respect it and take care of it. When it's free, we seem to think that it will always be free.
Look at the number of people right now supporting the idea of free stuff, demanding it as justice and entitlement... and you have proof of it.

 

I didn't deny anything. I simply explained that what you consider facts are actually opinions.

 

We have no idea how many people in China are imprisoned for political crimes.

Re our large number of people in prison? With freedom comes responsibility, and many of our citizens are unable to suppress their more primary urges, hence the violence problem that leads to prison. But I'd agree (if you believe this) that far too many Americans are in prison for drug crimes.

We have few political prisoners, except for maybe those who protest Fed.gov stealing their earnings and going to prison for not paying their taxes...

 

Bernie will not win the nom. And if he did, he wouldn't win the election. His ideas, however, can see fruition by becoming a senior member of cabinet.

 

Really? You are shocked that Sellout Sanders has few supporters? He sold out millions of his foolish socialist supporters for a seat at Hillary's table and a book deal. The book deal worked out, but backing Hillary, not so much...

 

Yes, it is our asinine century old drug prohibition that has the vast majority of people in prison.

Political prisoners? Yes, whistleblowers like Kiriakou and Sterling and all the rest.

Our big name political prisoners are those who have exposed the lies of government, Manning and Assange. If Seth Rich were still alive and Hillary were POTUS, he would be a prisoner.

 

Off topic here, but since it just seems to be us it's ok:

I agree wholeheartedly re the nonsensical 'War on Drugs' that has been in place for the past 50 years. It's been just as wasteful and detrimental to our society as the silly 'War on Poverty' has been.

I said years ago that all drugs, every single type, should be decriminalized. The result would be somewhat Darwinian, as the first few years would result in probably hundreds of thousands of deaths, probably from opiates, but the end result would save taxpayers trillions of dollars.

Imagine not having to fund prisons, courts, cops etc. Organized crime that depends on drugs would likely mostly go away, taking its violent culture with it. And only using .0001 percent of what it costs taxpayers to fund the War on Drugs would allow us to provide free, state of the art rehab clinics for those who decide they want to quit using.

Eventually, drugs and narcotics would have no more of an impact than alcohol does and our culture would be far less violent...

 

If you truly believe that then please, please, please do all you can to make sure Sanders gets the nomination. Bernie Sanders is a crackhead, everything he has proposed is just stupid on it's face. I don't know how he can babble on about this crap with a straight face. If he's just being a politician and making empty promises that is one thing but if he sincerely believes in this junk he's peddling then he's living in crazytown. Either way Trump will win because he really won 2020 in 2016. Those of us who voted for him weren't voting for a one term president and we really don't want to see another Democrat in the White House ever again. Even before the Dems were co-opted by the Marxist left they sucked. The Dems just **** up everything they touch and have been for fifty years. We've got a lot of stuff to fix but we can't do it losing every other election. So when we voted in 2016 we were really looking past that, even another four years isn't enough. Look, you guys tried your hocus pocus fairytale for five decades and failed, let's see what dealing with reality can do for America for say....... ummmm, how about from now on?

 

Free stuff is nice. We all will take it. That is the problem. The path of least resistance is not conducive to human growth.