Left-wing senator Bernie Sanders said the United States ‘has socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for the poor’
The US Democratic Party’s progressives rallied against President Donald Trump’s denunciation of socialism in his rambling state of the union speech last night.
The president began his tirade against socialism by blaming Venezuela’s economic hardships on left-wing politics.
“We condemn the brutality of their regime whose socialist policies have turned that nation from being the wealthiest in South America into a state of abject poverty and despair,” he said, failing to mention the impact of US economic sanctions.
“Here in the United States we are alarmed by the new calls to adopt socialism in our country.
“The US was founded on liberty and independence — not government coercion, domination and control,” he said, skipping out the chattel slavery of black people, the genocide of the indigenous population, and the vicious clampdown on the country’s labour movement.
“We are born free and we will stay free,” he claimed.
“Tonight we renew our resolve that the US will never be a socialist country.”
The left-wing senator Bernie Sanders delivered a heartfelt rebuttal to the president’s speech in an online video in which he said: “This country has socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for the poor.”
The former Democratic Party presidential candidate said: “We have more wealth and income inequality than almost any major country on Earth. And it is more unfair, more unequal than at any other time since the gilded age of the 1920s.”
Countering Trump’s claim that the economy is booming, Mr Sanders said: “Yep, the economy is great for the five richest people in [the US], who have seen their wealth go up by over $100 billion since Trump was elected.”
New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Mr Trump attacked socialism because “he feels himself losing on the issues.”
“In order for him to try to dissuade or throw people off the scent of the trail, he has to really make and confuse the public. And I think that’s exactly what he’s trying to do,” she said.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez berated Trump for failing to talk about policies and for treating the occasion as a campaign rally. “I think he was unprepared. I don’t think he did his homework.
“There was no plan to address our opioid crisis, the cost of healthcare, or increase wages.”
“Every single policy proposal that we have adopted and presented to the American public has been overwhelmingly popular, even some with a majority of Republican voters supporting what we’re talking about.”
This story was first published in The Morning Star, London, Feb 5, 2019
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