The Polarization Continues—————————————
A commentary
By J. F. Kelly, Jr.
Vermont, with a population only about half that of the city of San Diego, is the nation’s second smallest state by population. It has produced, however, two of the most liberal politicians in recent U.S history, Howard Dean and Bernie Sanders. Perhaps it’s something in the maple syrup.
Sen. Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire primary as expected, hailing as he does from neighboring Vermont just across the Connecticut River which meanders down through ultra-liberal Massachusetts to the south, home of ultra-liberal darling, Sen. Elizabeth Warren. It continues down through terminally-liberal Connecticut, my home state, flowing out to Long Island Sound. Even the fish there are liberal. Perhaps it’s something in the water that makes New England so liberal.
Sanders calls himself a Democratic Socialist. Forget the Democratic part. It just lends a measure of respectability. Bernie is a revolutionary who would radically change not just the government, but the entire country as well. While most politicians look for ways to save Social Security from bankruptcy, Mr. Sanders wants to increase benefits for everyone. Instead of fixing the problems with Obamacare, he wants to go way beyond Obamacare by eliminating healthcare insurance companies and just having the government pay for everything. Mr. Sanders also wants free tuition at all public colleges and universities. Let good, old Uncle Sam pick up the tab for that, too.
All of which raises the question of how to pay for all these freebies, estimated to cost at least $17 trillion over a decade. Medical care for all alone would cost nearly $1.5 trillion per year. Mr. Sanders says he would pay for that with a new 6.2% payroll tax on employers and a 2.2% income tax increase for all taxpayers except high earners who would see the top tax rate soar past 50%. Free tuition would be paid for by a new tax on financial transactions. In other words, spread the wealth around by soaking the affluent and the job and wealth creators and to hell with the damage to the economy.
For a nation whose debt is soon to exceed $20 trillion and which adds to it every year with deficit spending, this would saddle the economy with so much debt that the interest on it annually would consume most of the budget, leaving little for discretionary spending, including defense. This is the product of a man who believes that wealth is obscene and must be taken from those who earn and create it and given to those who didn’t. It would also increase the size of government by at least a third. Government would become not only the largest employer, but perhaps soon the only employer. This is as contrary to American traditions as it gets. Barack Obama wants us to be more like Sweden. Bernie Sanders apparently wants us to be more like Cuba.
Who supports this kind of madness? Why, hordes of young people, especially college students dissatisfied with their earning prospects and student debt, jealous of those with wealth and taught by their liberal professors that Wall Street is corrupt and the government owes them a living whether or not they have anything useful to contribute to society. But they are not alone. A Boston Globe survey found that 31% of Democrats said that the term “socialist” described them. Just over half of those between ages 17 and 34 said that the term fit them. It’s 11:00 p.m. Do you know where your college age children are on the political scale? Most of us were liberals in college but I don’t remember any socialists.
In response to the Sanders surge, Hillary Clinton has moved even further to the left than Barack Obama. Meanwhile, Republicans appear to be moving further to the right. According to a poll published in the Wall Street Journal, 46% of Democrats now regard themselves as very liberal or somewhat liberal while 62% of Republicans see themselves as very conservative or somewhat conservative. The polarization of Americans continues, dividing voters into two hostile camps. This may help explain some of the popularity of Donald Trump, who says, essentially, a pox on both your camps.
February 10, 2016
Commentaries by J. F. Kelly, Jr. 
To set the record straight, Captain, There is nothing in the water that causes people to elect people like Bernie Sanders, to offices… Mayor of Burlington, Representative from that County, and Senator from Vermont. It is something called the 1960’s Tune out, Drop out craze, when half of the Hippies and protesters in the country moved to Vermont, and eventually found out how to vote. Today you can go anywhere in that State, and see aging hippies in Tie Dye shirts, almost completely bald except for a lock on the back of their head pulled into a ponytail. And the aged women still wear skirts made from Burlap feed bags. Bernie started out in Brooklyn, NY, the son of Jewish parents, and he slummed around the country looking for something to protest where they give free meals. He ended up living in a dirt floor shack, which irked his wife and illegitimate baby, so much that she moved out. He founded his own Socialist Party there and lost 4 elections, before he figured out that you can get college students to vote for you if you promise them “Free stuff”. And the rest is history, so they say. University of Vermont in Burlington was the key.