WHAT DOES BERNIE WANT? – AT 10:21 A.M. ET:   Will we ever be told by a mainstream media that never asked a serious question of Barack Obama when he first ran for president?  Or will we be given the euphemisms and labels that the mainstreamers often use to cover the actual ideas of the political left?  Phrases like "anti-war." 

David Brooks has written a superb account of what Bernie wants.  He wants an America more like northern Europe.  Dull, unimaginative northern Europe.  Not very adventurous.  Not very imaginative.  Nanny state all the way.  This is a must-read, the best summary of Bernie that I've read so far.  From Brooks, in The New York Times: 

First, Sanders would centralize power in Washington. If you radically increase the amount of money going to the Washington establishment, as Sanders would, you’re giving that establishment greater resources to control American life.

Second, Sanders would weaken the ability of members of the middle class to make choices about their own lives. He would raise taxes on the rich, but there is only so much money you can squeeze out of such a small group of people. European welfare states generally rely on a highly regressive value-added/sales tax — usually around 20 to 25 percent.

Middle classes across Europe bear a much higher tax load than the American middle class. As Austan Goolsbee, a former economic adviser to President Obama, has noted, you really can’t have a Swedish-style welfare state without a broad high tax burden. That means less spending power for most Americans, and fewer resources to choose one’s own lifestyle.

Third, Sanders would change the incentive structure for the country’s most successful people. He proposes raising the top tax rate to 52 percent. As Josh Barro noted in The Times, when you add in state, local and other taxes, top earners would be paying a combined tax rate over 73 percent. In high-tax locales like New York City and California, it would be even more.

COMMENT:  Please read the rest.  It's equally depressing.  What Bernie wants is a gray society, a society where success and achievement, ever more rare, would be resented, not praised. 

No more America.  That's what Bernie wants.  I hope, if Bernie gets the nomination, that the Republicans know how to articulate everything wrong with Bernie's new society.  Boredom should never be a national goal.

February 12, 2016