8/18/2019 Bernie vs Hillary Cheat Sheet v 9

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What are Socialism & Social Democracy?

There are several related but different  

definitions of socialism (i.e. Merriam-Webster,

Heritage, Oxford, etc). Some definitions of

socialism consider regulation to be socialism,and therefore include anything from Cuban

Communism to Canadian ‘social democracy’.

Under any of these definitions, Socialism is

a very broad term. Republicans like to refer to

Communist countries as Socialist, so they

can lump them all together, but it doesn’t

make sense to lump Cuba and Canada

together.

 All of the world’s top democratic economies

are ‘social democratic’: they combine a free

market with extensive government regulationand government healthcare and welfare

programs. The US isn’t as social democratic

as Canada, the UK, or Japan, but we already

are  social democratic in many ways.

Is Hillary Clinton a progressive leader?

Unlike  Bernie, Hillary supported:

●   NAFTA  for 12 years & TPP for 3

●   DOMA  for 8 years

● the Iraq war authorization● the 1996 bill  that crippled welfare,

threw 1 million kids into extreme

poverty, & was repudiated by the

Children’s Defense Fund.

Bill Clinton passed the CFMA  & FSMA that

deregulated Wall Street and repealed

Glass-Steagall. Hillary failed to address this

as a Senator, from 2000 until the 2008 crisis.

She laughably says she “told Wall Street to

cut it out”, but that’s not a concrete action.

Hillary recently copied Bernie’s free publiccollege & university tuition idea (with some

modifications), Bernie’s public infrastructure-

repair jobs plan,& his call for criminal reform,

suspiciously shortly after he unveiled them.

Is Hillary Clinton honest?

Her most egregious lies were about:

● being under sniper fire in Bosnia 

● her past NAFTA support 

Sometimes people lie by assuming

something or guessing incorrectly. These lies

were about important things in her own past, 

so Hillary knew she was lying . After having

supported NAFTA for 12 years, in 2008

Hillary insisted she’d always been a critic of

it, and angrily accused Obama of ‘Karl-Rove’

tactics for criticizing her past NAFTA support.

Does Hillary flip-flop or “evolve”?

Hillary hasn’t led   on tough issues & doesn’t

fight politically risky battles. She often takes

the establishment side (i.e. Iraq, NAFTA,

TPP, DOMA, WallSt deregulation) or no side

(KeystoneXL),& switches sides(“evolves”)

once her side loses, or the outcome of the

battle for Democratic consensus seems clear.

Hillary  is consistently pro-choice, but that has

an overwhelming Democratic consensus, and

abortion is legal, so that battle was already

won, and Hillary didn’t win or   lead that battle.

Are the Clinton scandals ALL made-up?

Just because Republicans say something,

that doesn’t automatically  make it false.

Jimmy Carter called Bill Clinton’s Marc Rich

pardon “disgraceful”, & Barney Frank called it“contemptuous”. Hillary (like Bill) has a long

record of legal improprieties & unethical and

borderline-illegal behavior, including her

unsecure Secretary of State private email

server, and accepting campaign donations

from the wife of FBI-most-wanted-list fugitive

Marc Rich, shortly before Bill pardoned him.

What has Hillary said about Obama?

“Sen. John McCain has a lifetime of

experience that he'd bring to the White

House. And Sen. Obama has a speech hegave in 2002."

"So shame on you, Barack Obama. It is time

you ran a campaign consistent with your

messages in public.”

“Enough with the speeches and the big

rallies, and then using tactics that are right

out of Karl Rove’s playbook!”

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillarys-nafta-lie/http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/bernie-sanders-slams-clinton-having-supported-slashing-americas-safety-nethttp://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jun/17/hillary-clinton/hillary-clinton-change-position-same-sex-marriage/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_Futures_Modernization_Act_of_2000https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm%E2%80%93Leach%E2%80%93Bliley_Acthttp://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/oct/13/hillary-clinton/what-hillary-clinton-really-said-about-tpp-and-gol/http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillarys-nafta-lie/http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2008/mar/25/hillary-clinton/video-shows-tarmac-welcome-no-snipers/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm%E2%80%93Leach%E2%80%93Bliley_Acthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_Futures_Modernization_Act_of_2000http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/bernie-sanders-slams-clinton-having-supported-slashing-americas-safety-nethttp://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jun/17/hillary-clinton/hillary-clinton-change-position-same-sex-marriage/http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/oct/13/hillary-clinton/what-hillary-clinton-really-said-about-tpp-and-gol/http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2008/feb/25/barack-obama/clinton-has-changed-on-nafta/

8/18/2019 Bernie vs Hillary Cheat Sheet v 9

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www.berniesanderscheatsheet.com

Are Republicans Socialist too?

Yes, most of them are. Here are some of the

things most Republicans support:

● mortgage & dependent deductions

● a non-flat (“progressive”) tax rate

● property taxes & public schools

● state colleges and state highways

● social security

● medicare & medicare part D

● minimum wage laws

● minimum schooling laws

● work overtime laws

● child labor laws

● work safety laws● environmental laws

● clean air and water laws

● consumer safety laws

● automobile emissions and fuel

efficiency laws

● electrical appliance safety laws

● mine safety laws

● building codes

Do we have a rigged economy?

This is what conservative hero Ayn Rand said

about conservative hero Ronald Reagan:

“Mr. Reagan is not a champion of

capitalism, but  a conservative in the worst

sense of that word—i.e., an advocate of a

mixed economy with government controls

slanted in favor of business rather than

labor   (which, philosophically, is as untenable

a position as one could choose—see Fred

Kinnan in Atlas Shrugged, pp. 541-2). This

description applies in various degrees to

most Republican politicians, but most of

them preserve some respect for the rights ofthe individual. Mr. Reagan does not: he

opposes the right to abortion.”

Republicans support socialism for the rich,

like farm and oil subsidies, corporate

subsidies, bank bailouts, business incentives,

tax loopholes, investment earnings

preferential tax treatment, etc.

What do Republicans have nostalgia for?

Republicans have nostalgia for a time when

there was very little government regulation

protecting poor and working people. These

are some of the things from those times, that

regulation and socialism have fortunately

largely gotten rid of:

● women and children working

16-hour-a-day factory jobs for poverty

wages (no child labor, minimum wage

or overtime work laws)

● children dropping out of school to

earn money for their families (nominimum schooling laws)

● only the rich could afford to go to

college (no federal student loans)

● low social mobility due to low

education levels among the poor and

middle class

● abusive or dangerous work conditions

Weird Republican arguments

Republicans love to talk about American

exceptionalism. Even though 19 of the top

20 industrialized countries guarantee health

care to all their citizens and most have

substantially lower per-capita healthcare

costs than the US, Republicans say the US

can’t afford universal healthcare. That seems

like reverse  American exceptionalism, saying

that the US isn’t capable of doing what

almost everyone else does.

 Another common Republican argument is

that Socialism implies or leads to Nazism(National Socialism). But, just because the

Nazi party was socialist, doesn’t mean

socialists or social democracies (like Israel,

UK, Germany, Japan, Canada, etc) are Nazi,

or moving towards Nazism. Just like all men

being mammals, doesn’t mean all mammals

are men.