Bernie Sanders just announced that he intends to run for president again in 2020. His announcement was timed perfectly with the surfacing of an old video where he defends the idea of bread lines which were common in the Soviet Union.
The Washington Free Beacon reports:
Sanders: Breadlines Are ‘A Good Thing’
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) in 1985 praised countries where people “line up for food,” calling breadlines a “good thing.”
The video of Sanders, then the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, resurfaced on Tuesday after the senator announced that he is running for president in 2020. In the interview from the mid-80s, Sanders was asked about breadlines in Nicaragua and his support for the socialist Sandinistas who ruled the country at the time.
“You know, it’s funny, sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is because people are lining up for food,” Sanders said. “That’s a good thing. In other countries people don’t line up for food. The rich get the food, and the poor starve to death.”
Sanders’s presidential campaign will be his second bid for the White House, after losing his Democratic primary bid to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Still, despite losing, Sanders said that his more progressive stances helped push the Democratic Party further to the left in the two years following his loss.
Watch the video:
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Donald Trump Jr. commented about this on Twitter:
Bernie honeymooned in the Soviet Union during the Cold War and thinks people lining up in bread lines “is a good thing” about socialism. He literally wants the US to become the USSR. But Trump is the Russian agent. 🤔🙄🤦♂️
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 19, 2019
Lots of people were surprised at this embrace of breadlines, even for Bernie.
Liz Wolfe writes at The Federalist:
Bernie Sanders: Well Actually, Breadlines Aren’t Quite So Bad
He acts as if this is some sort of trump card that invalidates criticism of breadlines, but people waiting miserably in line for hours to receive basic (and scant) provisions due to horrific food shortages, is pretty far from most sane people’s concept of a productive economy. Imagine the opportunity cost: people standing in lines for hours, as a part of a daily or weekly ritual to get bread and soap and milk, means these people will not be able to work or pursue any enjoyable or fulfilling activities during this time.
Lost innovation and productivity is certainly an argument against breadlines, but for those swayed by the idea of unshackling people from capitalism so they can have more free time and pleasure, don’t assume that standing in breadlines is a happiness upgrade by any stretch of the imagination.
It’s insane that anyone in America is even considering socialist ideas. We spent years trying to defeat it.
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