Tag: sanders

Bernie Sanders: can he be a socialist, please?

Guardian letter 5 (February 2016)

(UK newspaper The Guardian had seriously under-reported the amazing rise of Bernie Sanders. When they eventually had to report it, they took to adding a sneering and condescending prefix to Sanders’ declared political position.)

Go Bernie!
Photo: Huffington Post

‘Socialist‘ is usually an insult in the US. A high-profile politician who voluntarily takes on the term deserves some respect. If faith in government to correct economic injustice is the key hallmark of socialism, and if Bernie Sanders campaigns for that, which he does, then he’s entitled to call himself a socialist – and to be called one by the media without the derogatory prefix ‘self-declared‘.

Postscript: Amazingly – OK, probably coincidentally – they’ve stopped using it!

Top 🔺

Please feel free to comment.

Liberal leader equates Jeremy Corbyn to Donald Trump

Guardian letter 3. September 2015

(UK Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron wrote a Guardian article desperately trying to position his party, devastated in the recent election, in the centre-left supposedly abandoned by Labour under Corbyn.)

image
Separated at birth?
Photo-montage: Telegraph

Tim Farron thinks the Corbyn phenomenon is exemplified in the US by the support for Donald Trump. In fact, the UK equivalent of the Trump phenomenon is the rise of Ukip. The US counterpart of the European Corbyn/Syriza movement is surely the surprise emergence of socialist senator Bernie Sanders as a serious rival to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Linking Corbyn to Trump is a clumsy smear by Farron. He should bear in mind that the Lib Dems might need an electoral pact with Labour if they are to recover seats at the next general election.

Please feel free to comment.