There is a simple Marxist explanation for the rise of anti-establishment presidential candidates here : the decay of capitalism and the reality of the class struggle. Obscene economic inequality is all too obvious to working class people. The American middle class is disappearing. Even Republican Donald Trump says : ” The American Dream is dead “.
History teaches that the ruined middle class can turn to fascism-as they did in Nazi Germany in the 1930s . I see Bernie Sanders as more New Deal liberal than radical socialist in the tradition of Eugene V. Debs.
Of course peaceful, progressive change is infinitely preferable to bloody revolution. But our ONE PERCENT is probably the meanest capitalist ruling class in the world.
But TRUTH is also subversive . And TRUTH is on the side of progressive forces. I think Marx was wrong about religion always and everywhere being the ” opium of the people “. Catholic social philosophy, for example, can make Bernie Sanders seem like a timid liberal. No doubt Bernie’s left wing politics has been shaped by the ” socialist Jew ” tradition in New York . Read socialist Irving Howe’s ” World of Our Fathers “. Not a few socialists among the older generation of New York Jews. They had a feel, an empathy for the persecuted of the world.
But I remain a critical supporter of ” socialist ” Bernie Sanders. I will certainly vote for him in the Rhode Island primary.
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Ron