Patterico's Pontifications

10/22/2019

Kyle Smith Takes Down New York Socialists

Filed under: General — JVW @ 10:43 am



[guest post by JVW]

I found this Kyle Smith column at NRO to be hilarious. The setting is a rally in the New York City borough of Queens for Presidential candidate Bernard Sanders this past weekend, a short distance from the aging Marxist’s birthplace in Brooklyn. I’ll let Mr. Smith describe it in his own words:

You would think the Bernie Sanders campaign would make sure to hold its biggest rallies on a weekday, given the amount of propping up he needs. Hunched over from the shoulders, he didn’t just grab the lectern on Saturday — he clutched it, relied on it, looking like Mr. Burns leaning over his walker. (It’s a good thing he’s a politician; in what other profession do they invariably put a large stand in front of you to help you keep your balance?) Sanders came on stage to the strains of AC/DC’s “Back in Black,” which was meant to make Sanders sound exciting and indomitable; in fact the song was written as a tribute to a dead guy (Bon Scott). Oopsie?

Mr. Smith then goes on to describe the Vermont Senator’s boilerplate speech mixing questionable promises such as the panoply of free stuff (college, health care, child care) he pledges to provide along with outright horsepucky that he can’t possibly deliver (“Our program will eliminate homelessness in America!”). And do you think the usual gaggle of leftist idiots manage to make the scene? Why of course they do!

To give some sense of how detached from actual American reality Bernie Sanders sounded, one of his introducers was the beach-ball-shaped remnant of the Beach Boys era Michael Moore, who made multiple references to Franklin Roosevelt as if the 3.7 percent unemployment rate and roughly 50 percent bump in the stock market since Donald Trump was elected mean that it’s 1932 again. “They say Bernie’s too old,” Moore bellowed. “Oh yeah? Well, here’s what’s too old: The electoral college is too old!” Sick burn, Mike. Any bets on which of those two old things lasts longer?

Of course it wouldn’t be a socialist hootenanny without some tiresome local politicians who have, at best, mixed electoral success. Failed Queens Attorney General candidate Tiffany Cabán eases up to the podium and unknowingly makes a compelling case against socialist policies:

Cabán’s parents grew up in a socialist wonderland: New York City public housing. As the Bernie rally was staged right across the street from the largest public-housing project in the Western Hemisphere, the Woodbridge Houses, the attempted messaging was muddled. The New York City Housing Authority, dreamed up by liberals and socialists and run by them more or less continuously ever since, has been so poorly managed by the Che Guevara-quoting mayor of New York City that a judge turned over management of it to . . . the administration of Donald J. Trump. An exemplar to the world, it is not. Just ask Cabán! “My parents,” she said, “grew up in public housing in the Woodside Houses [nearby in Queens]. . . . They grew up with mold, chipping paint, asbestos, crumbling ceilings, nameless serious health risks, and my parents had to live with it. . . . Early on our family learned that government didn’t really care about us.” Do go on about why we need more of it, then.

And then of course our lovable but hopelessly daffy socialist niece shows up to lend her support to her tio abuelo. But she too muddles the message with a personal history of rejecting the government services as delivered in hyper-progressive New York City:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who also introduced Sanders and recalled being a bartender in lower Manhattan as recently as last February, is the ideal proletarian face. But she [like Ms. Cabán] is a refugee from New York City public schools, those bastions of left-liberal Democrats and the teachers’ unions that fund them. Her family moved to Westchester to escape Bronx schools, yet she and Sanders proposed to solve the (urban) education crisis by paying teachers more while demanding nothing in return, aka rewarding failure, hence guaranteeing that future Cabáns and Ocasio-Cortezes will also flee urban schools. And then use their education to become activists opposing school choice.

Notwithstanding the endorsement of our exasperating yet endearing niece, Senator Sanders has recently fallen to fourth in the polling for the Iowa Caucuses, with his support in last week’s polls only about half of what it was one year ago. His recent health problems are no doubt causing Democrats to wonder if he has the stamina for what promises to be a grueling campaign, as well as bringing back bad memories of Hillary Clinton’s many absences on the campaign trail and obvious ailments four years ago. No doubt some former Bernie Babes & Bros are taking a fresh look at Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats who are also promising to stick it to capitalism in the name of handing out freebies. And that loss of support for Sen. Sanders leaves him with a problem that he has been dealing with ever since he threw his ushanka into the ring five years ago:

Ocasio-Cortez’s presence did bring up a somewhat delicate topic, though: In a struggling part of one of the most famously diverse corners of the entire country, the crowd was, erm, shall we say, not quite as diverse as it might have been. Bernie’s fans look like they’ve spent more time in punk bands and poetry workshops than in public housing, like they came to socialism after becoming disenchanted with the Future Equestrians of America and majored in Quidditch at Bowdoin College. This is why the lustiest cheer went up when Sanders yelled, “We can cancel all student debt in America with a modest tax on Wall Street speculation!” Woo-hoo! Nothing says, “Uplift the working class” like “Giant payoffs for Bolshevik Bowdoinians!” No wonder the working people who actually live in that housing project next door to the rally took no interest in it whatsoever.

Though I am not happy about the rise of the completely phony and insincere Elizabeth Warren, I do look forward to the day when Bernard Sanders is sent back to the nursing home known as the United States Senate.

– JVW

32 Responses to “Kyle Smith Takes Down New York Socialists”

  1. Though I tease her mercilessly, I did kind of think that AOC was too politically shrewd to endorse a campaign that is spiraling downward. I guess she really is (at this point, at least) more of a True Believer than a calculating operator.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  2. Debt is slavery. Student debt is selling children into peonage, with academia the new slave trade. And for what? Certainly not for the benefit of the children. For the academic slave runners to have a more comfortable serfdom under their capitalist overlords.

    nk (dbc370)

  3. Am I the only one that reads Bernard Sanders and gets a visual image of a marxist Colonel Sanders

    Frosty, Fp (f27e97)

  4. No, supporting Warren and having her go on to 2 terms, precludes AOC from being youngest, first Latina, and 1st socialist president. She’s needs a consecutive Trump/Pence/Haley/Hawley run for the electorate to be weary enough to take the chance on her.

    urbanleftbehind (f1ec20)

  5. Pushing Sanders v. Trump. would be equivalent of sending in suicide bomber or a North Vietnamese sapper, which has it’s own appeal to that bracket.

    urbanleftbehind (f1ec20)

  6. I’m serious. The minute you go into debt, you are no longer working for yourself. You are working for your creditor. Like a slave. You have a mortgage? You don’t own your home any more than a feudal serf did on his baron’s estate. It’s the same and worse with student loans. For how long will the children be working for some shylock to pay it off? Without any guarantee from the academic racket which put the chains on them in the first place that they will have any kind of job at all let alone one that’s worth the debt they incurred.

    nk (dbc370)

  7. major howdy, tbone, even favorite wahini, are from the same box of chocolates, from the house of conquistador,

    narciso (d1f714)

  8. Even if you ve paid off your house, you are still a serf to your county government, although less so as a senior citizen with whatever exemption massa let’s you have.

    urbanleftbehind (f1ec20)

  9. The government is merely the enforcement arm of the new feudal lords, the capitalists. You just pay your tithe at a different window.

    nk (dbc370)

  10. it’s the concept of sysgy, where government and enterprise merge, technically the term is corporatism,

    narciso (d1f714)

  11. I’m serious. The minute you go into debt, you are no longer working for yourself. You are working for your creditor. Like a slave. You have a mortgage? You don’t own your home any more than a feudal serf did on his baron’s estate. It’s the same and worse with student loans. For how long will the children be working for some shylock to pay it off? Without any guarantee from the academic racket which put the chains on them in the first place that they will have any kind of job at all let alone one that’s worth the debt they incurred.

    Counter point. 18 year old are adults. Allowing them to make decisions about their future and borrow money to invest in improving their capabilities is a good thing. If you borrowed more money than your degree is worth that’s on you.

    I will say I’d love to see some reforms to the higher education system. But i think we should let people make the decisions about things that impact their lives.

    Time123 (daab2f)

  12. I’m serious. The minute you go into debt, you are no longer working for yourself. You are working for your creditor. Like a slave.

    This is silly, debt is a tool that when used correctly allows you to save money. For example, everyone needs a place to live, and without considering fringe options (living in a van down by the river) that means you can rent or own property. Renting is a straight expense, the money you pay is gone forever. When you take on debt to finance property some of you payment goes to equity, which is real value. In addition you can benefit from appreciation on your home value. There are costs associated with home ownership you don’t have when renting, but in almost all situations it’s worth it to invest in property rather than lease it out.

    The banks aren’t your “slavemasters”, they’re charging you a fee for use of their capital to acquire an appreciating asset that serves to lower your overall costs. The real problem isn’t debt, it’s the terrible financial literacy of most of the country. I can think of a few things we can cut to put some Finance courses into the high school curriculum

    Manotaur (4f2a60)

  13. excessive debt, as micawber put it, turns from an instrument, to an albatross,

    narciso (d1f714)

  14. @6. Reaganomics.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  15. AOC wants to take over the mantle of socialist leader from bernie. Question why do bad things happen to conservative politician ( like being soundly defeated ) when they run on ending social security, medicade and medicare?

    asset (ff01fd)

  16. I listened to most of that rally. I like Bernie. It’s just a gut thing. One thing I noticed was hardly anyone mentioned “Trump” or “impeachment.” (unless I missed it). I think they know that if they’re gonna win they’re going to have to flip some of those Trump supporters in the midwest.

    JRH (52aed3)

  17. Though I am not happy about the rise of the completely phony and insincere Elizabeth Warren, I do look forward to the day when Bernard Sanders is sent back to the nursing home known as the United States Senate.

    How are the KGB black-ops for your Kremlin honey-pot going?

    Dave (c24603)

  18. Speaking of socialists and their wacky ideas……

    “Speaking to a meeting of young members of her Christian Democrats (CDU), Merkel said allowing people of different cultural backgrounds to live side by side without integrating had not worked in a country that is home to some four million Muslims.

    “This (multicultural) approach has failed, utterly failed,” Merkel told the meeting in Potsdam, south of Berlin.

    Merkel faces pressure from within her CDU to take a tougher line on immigrants who don’t show a willingness to adapt to German society and her comments appeared intended to pacify her critics.

    She said too little had been required of immigrants in the past and repeated her usual line that they should learn German in order to get by in school and have opportunities on the labor market.”

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-merkel-immigration/merkel-says-german-multiculturalism-has-failed-idUSTRE69F1K320101016
    _

    If only they’d been warned…..
    _

    harkin (6776a3)

  19. AOC wants to take over the mantle of socialist leader from bernie. Question why do bad things happen to conservative politician ( like being soundly defeated ) when they run on ending social security, medicade and medicare?

    asset (ff01fd) — 10/22/2019 @ 12:50 pm

    Because people like getting benefits from the government. Yes, they also like low taxes. They want both. Hence the deficit, and hence politicians talking out of both sides of their mouths.

    norcal (eec1aa)

  20. Workers should not pay taxes. Only profits extorted from the labor of others should be taxed.

    nk (dbc370)

  21. Reagan did not invent capitalism, Comrade DCSCA. Capitalism was the natural-born child of feudalism many centuries ago. Reagan did, however, greatly lower the taxes of the predatory capitalists at the expense of the workers and the lower middle-class which works alongside its workers in the professions and small businesses.

    nk (dbc370)

  22. I don’t know that Germany (or Europe in general) is really the right place to get advice on cultural integration. They failed at it, um, spectacularly less than 100 years ago. It’s one of the things that we really do best (even if people forget that from time to time and panic over whoever today’s boogieman is taking over our culture).

    Also, people who can’t afford a four year college should go to jr. college. It’s a lot less expensive and as long as you take the right classes, you can transfer your credits at the end of 2 yrs and you still get your degree from the 4 yr school (yes, I know, we’ve overglorified the 4 yr experience AND no parent wants to tell their colleagues that Johnny is going to whatevercounty community college.)

    Nic (896fdf)

  23. The setting is a rally in the New York City borough of Queens for Presidential candidate Bernard Sanders this past weekend, a short distance from the aging Marxist’s birthplace in Brooklyn

    Right near the site of the once proposed “second headquarters” of Amazon.com, whose defeat (or abandonment by Jeff Bezos) AOC considers a great victory.

    Early on our family learned that government didn’t really care about us.” Do go on about why we need more of it, then.

    It needs to be added that when a private corporation doesn’t care about people, the politicians and the lawyers go after them, but not so a government agency, Often there is also a profit motive attached to competence and bankruptcy and losing their jobs to incompetence.

    Sammy Finkelman (0d0ca8)

  24. Warran may be monumentally insincere, but then so is Sanders.

    C. S. P. Schofield (9eb8bc)

  25. @22. ROFLMAO False prosperity is the hallmark of Reaganomics; Uncle Sam is so ‘in-debted’ to him for it, too– and to China.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  26. I myself look forward to the day when Bernard Sanders is sent back to the nursing home known as the nursing home.

    Kevin M (19357e)

  27. Reagan did, however, greatly lower the taxes of the predatory capitalists

    From 70% to 28%, yet. Question: who here besides wants 70% marginal rates again?

    Kevin M (19357e)

  28. BTW, the top 1% of households by income pay a higher percentage of that income today than they did in 1979, even though the top rate is about half of what it was then.

    Kevin M (19357e)

  29. @28.Eis-en-how-er; Man of he Hour…

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  30. ^t

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  31. To compare debt, as in a loan on real property, to college debt is not even a comparison
    Real property has tangible value. Value that fluctuates yes, but still tangible. The lender
    has the real property as insurance against default.
    College education? Nothing to insure. That is why college loans are so destructive.
    The benefactor of the borrowed money, the college, has no risk. A free market will fail
    if their is no shared risk. Clean up college loans? Allow college debt to go into bankruptcy
    with colleges on the hook for not getting paid.

    Borrowing Money is a tool. Like any other tool, it takes understanding. Understanding of basic, economics. Time value of money. Inflation. I’ve watched people that shunned debt in all matters of their life. Lots of bad money decisions. For instance. You can save money for six years to buy a car. But if you can pay 3% interest, and inflation on autos is running 6%, you’re better off borrowing.

    iowan2 (9c8856)


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