I was born in 1956, the third child of World War II veterans (yep, both Dad and Mom served). That officially makes me a “Baby Boomer,” that explosive generation of children born after the war, created out of the joy of surviving world cataclysm. There were so many of us that we created whole new schools, and towns, and traditions. Now we are reaching the other end of our lives, and we are creating whole new problems. Health care, eldercare and traditional retirement systems are stretched to the breaking point with our geriatric needs.
I was a career public school teacher, serving students from sixth through twelfth grades. I taught social studies: history, government, geography, economics, and current events. So I know well the differences between economic and governmental systems. I can readily define capitalism, socialism and communism; and know they are not the same as democracies, dictatorships, monarchies and anarchies.
Bernie’s a Socialist
I know when Bernie Sanders says he is a socialist, it absolutely is not the same thing as saying he is a Communist. Bernie isn’t even a complete socialist. He wants the government to take over health care, just like the government took over the postal service, the highway systems, and public education. He sees health care as a basic human right that the government needs to guarantee. Sure that’s a socialistic idea, just like the idea of Thomas Jefferson to provide public education in the Northwest Ordinance back in 1784.
But Bernie doesn’t want to take control of all industries. He’s not advocating “nationalization” of the steel industry, or the banking industry, or the other pillars of the American capitalist tradition. He is demanding that we take more control of the impacts of those industries and regulate them, particularly when it comes to what they do to our workers, and our environment.
Corporate Welfare
He has a point. Wal-Mart is only able to pay such low wages with government support. Their “living wage” only exists because their workers can turn to government assistance to supplement their salaries and their needs. In essence, it is our government that supports Wal-Mart, and Amazon, and many other huge corporations that depend on minimum wage labor. That’s what Sanders means when he talks about America as a “corporate socialist” state. The corporations get the government breaks, instead of the workers.
And how can you argue with Bernie about the incredible disparity of wealth in our nation? 1% of Americans own 40% of the wealth (the Hill). Warren Buffet, fourth wealthiest man in the world with a estimated worth of $85 Billion, paid a 17% tax rate, his secretary who makes $60000 paid 30% (Stanford). Mr. Buffet readily acknowledges that it’s not fair, or right. Bernie Sanders wants to do something about it. Maybe that’s “socialistic” but it’s also common sense.
Cold War
So why then are so many Boomers panicked by the possibility of a Bernie candidacy? Why are there “never Trumpers” reconsidering their stand, perhaps even swallowing their morals and convictions to re-elect the President?
“Boomers” grew up in the Cold War. We hid from nuclear attack in the Cuban Missile Crisis. I remember lining up in the hall in first grade, feet against the wall, head between our knees, waiting for the flash. We first graders knew we’d be OK, we were “in the position,” but the teachers standing around behind us weren’t going to make it.
“Boomers” watched Khrushchev pound his shoe on the table at the United Nations, and desperate Germans shot as they tried to climb the wall. We fought war after war against “Communism,” in Korea, in Vietnam, and in countless “insurgencies” throughout the world. And we were indoctrinated in school that “COMMUNISM” was just an extension of “SOCIALISM”. So it should be no surprise that a Socialist running for President brings up all sorts of vague memories of Civil Defense Shelters and Bert the Turtle of “Duck and Cover”.
Conflation
It probably doesn’t help that Senator Sanders seems willing to see the “good” in Communist regimes. He’s talked about the increase in literacy under Castro in Cuba, and the intelligence and sincerity of the Nicaraguan revolutionaries. But Sanders isn’t looking to make the United States a Cuba, or a Venezuela. Sanders looks to models like Denmark, or Sweden, or the healthcare plan of that den of socialist inequities, Canada. He sees solutions to American problems that are “socialistic” without embracing all-encompassing SOCIALISM.
It’s not surprising that Sanders finds his greatest base of support in young people. The post-Cold War generation hasn’t spent their lives being indoctrinated into the “evils” of “ISM”. Communism was an historic relic when they went to school. They didn’t even learn about Communism, educators changed it to a “Command Economy”. That paranoia is left to us Boomers.
We have a left a legacy of government debt and environmental catastrophe. Let’s hope our last spasm of “power”, driven by our elementary school indoctrination, won’t be to re-elect Donald Trump in the White House out of outdated fear. Bernie shouldn’t make us “duck and cover”.
