It's worth mentioning that much of the basic legislation that people here take for granted was enacted as a result of "socialist agitation" of the early twentieth century.
Things like:
Child labor laws
Minimum wage laws
Basic workers' health measures
Product labels on foods and medicines
Auto safety legislation
Big business and big money tried to block all of these things. They're still doing it. Or they're trying to roll back the clock, and undo all the progressive legislation enacted in the early 20th century. Sadly, the utter political immaturity of the American electorate works in the favor of these forces.
If it were up to big business, there wouldn't be any of these things.
"Socialists" may not be electable in the US, but they have served a useful political purpose of being engines for social change.
The mainstream candidates of both political parties--or what passes as "parties"--are cats of the same stripe. They're both owned by big business.
The best we can hope for, in this situation, is that some of the better ideas of the "fringe" candidates get adopted by progressive legislators or presidents.
All I know is, things in the US need to change. We just can't go on like this.
Just look at this for example: a new report shows that fossil fuel companies knew about the human role in climate change in the early 1980s, and then spent decades deliberately spreading misinformation to deny what all scientists now know to be a fact:
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/20...-1981.html
This is how power operates. It protects its own interests. It doesn't want to give you a fair shake. It wants to be unchallenged. Power needs to be watched, checked, and balanced.
People like Sanders perform this useful service.
I will also toss out one other, unrelated thing.
I've been impressed recently by some of the things that the President has done. He's showing what I call backbone. I have to give credit where it's due.
In fact, Obama has done a few remarkable things that should be acknowledged. In the past 60 days, he's:
--Taken the first concrete steps to lift the embargo on Cuba, which has been an embarrassing anachronism for decades now.
--Toured a prison (first time any president has done so), and talked seriously about prison reform, which is needed.
--Signed a treaty with Iran, which is the first concrete step in normalization with that powerful nation that any president has done in decades. And he did it over the screaming and shouting from Congress and its masters.
![[Image: biggrin.gif]](https://rooshvforum.network/images/smilies/biggrin.gif)
Dammit..