Reacting to Bernie Sanders

Readers of this blog will correctly assume that I support the President and find him very entertaining. The same readers of this blog can also correctly assume that I neither agree with Bernie Sanders, support Bernie Sanders, or find him entertaining.

Therefore, I explained to a friend of mine, I would not listen to Bernie Sanders on the Joe Rogan podcast. (I don’t particularly care for haggard Joe Rogan either.) When I tried to reason why, I caught myself sounding similar to a deranged Trump hater. So opposed was I to a man’s personality and policy theories that I didn’t want to hear his voice speak to an agreeable know-nothing for over an hour. But this is a bad reason to avoid the opposition’s unedited viewpoint. If I am going to legitimately oppose—or begrudgingly find common ground—I need to hear more than Bernie Sander’s stump speech.

(Yes, I know that I am trying to play a moderate that doesn’t read the news, but it is difficult to ignore when the news is engaging me everywhere.)

So, in the spirit of Bill de Blasio appearing on Sean Hannity’s show, I decided to listen to OG Bill de Blasio in a much more accommodating setting.

Firstly, I agree with Bernie about the Democratic debates on CNN. They were fun to watch as a type of political reality TV, but they were more about personality than politics, and not boring enough. As soon as the debates started to resemble C-SPAN (answers lasting more than 11 seconds), CNN--sensing my drowsiness before I did--cut answers to 10 seconds to satisfy my attention span. In other words, CNN succeeded in making them entertaining, not informative.

So, the Joe Rogan interview gave Bernie a platform to spew his rhetoric without Democratic or Republican opposition. He could finally be informative, not entertaining.

He is neither.

Joe Rogan is no Sean Hannity; he doesn’t have any real interest or knowledge of politics. His only true interests are similar to those of his 18 year-old viewers: weed and fights. Bernie Sanders is perfect for his know-nothing, hyper passionate male audience.

Though Joe Rogan has money to lose if Bernie’s policies ever pass, he isn’t motivated to oppose him. He is motivated by views and likes on his podcast. He is motivated by the show in the present, not disastrous policies of the could-be future. He is rich after all; no matter what happens, he will be fine. (So long as he doesn’t become a billionaire.)

Meanwhile, Bernie fans only make minimum wage, so they want $15/hour for minimum wage. They can’t afford healthcare, so they want it for “free.” They are in debt, and want someone to take them out of it. Life was hard, and not fair, and they want to be given a break. Bernie promises to give them that break by promising to restore their “right” to healthcare (a genius phrasing I might add). They could go to the doctor more often. (The healthy youth only need the doctor in an emergency.) The cost of this mediocre benefit to the young and healthy would devastate the middle class that these young people will eventually become.

Bernie isn’t honest with them about this fact either. He purposely excludes the only methodology for providing this “right”: raising taxes, followed by an eventual government takeover. Even Joe Rogan listeners, without making much money yet, would notice a lighter paycheck to receive the “right” of universal healthcare.

For his ideas to seem feasible he has to scapegoat corporations as “evil” and “greedy.” Those words are also used to justify government takeover of an entire industry. (Socialism also comes to mind.)

It is not well meaning to “break up Big Pharma” as antidote to grant the “right”of universal healthcare. Such action will displace people of jobs, cause millions to go without healthcare and disrupt the economy. No moderate Democrat would ever vote for it.

I do agree with him that kids are overmedicated, and go to expensive, private colleges that they don’t need; but it is a stretch for me to imagine that breaking up an entire industry for the government to control comes from a well meaning place. Even regulations, which I oppose on principle, make doctors responsible, and is a more appropriate Congressional response. We can make changes while keeping the country stable.

Joe Rogan then switches gears and asks an extremely stupid and loaded question: “How are we going to protect kids if we keep drugs illegal?”

Joe Rogan always tries to bring the conversation back to weed. First of all, he doesn’t need drugs to be legal: he is a rich celebrity who can afford to obtain illegal drugs safely. It is the working poor that spend their precious money on useless drugs and risk unjust prison sentences if they are caught selling drugs. Joe Rogan is a dangerously influential advocate for marijuana, and his bias affects the choices of his naive viewers.

(Good guy Bernie doesn’t bite. He has grandkids. He doesn’t want them smoking weed.)

This interview is a fun, but pointless exercise. The questions are too massive for a single brain to come up with a reasonable solution, and Sanders offers opinion based on ideology, not fact. (Joe Rogan's audience doesn't need a  be difficureasonable solution either.)

“How do you solve the opioid crisis?” Rogan stupidly asks at one point. (This issue, like the issue of the city of Baltimore, would have been ignored had it not been for Trump's exposure.)

“Why do people turn to drugs and alcohol?” Bernie responds. “These are diseases of despair. Nothing to look forward to when your job is in China. Why is this happening? How do we restore hope and optimism?”

With a welfare state! Healthcare! Jobs! Education! Free stuff that makes people more enslaved to the government by taking more of their hard earned money away to pay for it at inflated prices. This is Bernie’s response. They are more empty promises to get votes he needs to get into power.

The solutions to these problems are not a politician’s responsibility, and it is precisely Bernie’s ideology that influences people to make these terrible life decisions in the first place. The welfare state that Bernie promises cannot protect people after they have made bad decisions. Only faith in God can prevent people from making bad decisions.

To wrap up I’m going to respond to selected soundbites:

“We are not great when we have people in poverty, when people cannot go to a doctor.”

Jesus knew even he couldn’t prevent poverty, and government provided healthcare should be a State issue only.

“We will build affordable housing!”

This is just more government overreach.We don’t need to pay for a federal NYCHA. It was hard enough to build a wall to protect the border, and a wall does one thing, keeps people out. Now we have to meet the needs of the people with actual housing? Where will we get the money if we are paying for their health insurance too? Never heard this one before, maybe he just threw it in to cover all his bases, since Joe Rogan has a huge audience.

Fear mongering: “We have 12 years to transform our energy industry, or there will be irreparable damage. You cannot continue to produce a product that is destroying the world.”

Bernie talks about fossil fuels like they are cigarettes. Fossil fuels are useful, and there is no scientific agreement that they are finite or our use of them is irreparably destroying the environment. So again, he wants to eliminate an entire useful industry without offering an alternative, just to “save the environment.” He is appealing to the conscience of people by asking for their vote to help him save the indefensible environment from "greedy" corporations.

Bernie wants to be in power, and he wants their vote to put him in power, so he makes radical promises to receive that vote. Every politician needs to do this, which means that they must be held accountable by unsatisfied constituents when they are in office. Building a wall is much more possible than “breaking up Big Pharma.” Just sayin.’

It goes without saying that both Bernie and Joe Rogan with both profit from this interview. Their supporters will continue to live their squalid lives, begging for welfare. Sadly unAmerican. Not a chance he gets the nomination and runs against Trump. Young people eventually grow up to become Trump supporters.

I’ll give Bernie the benefit of the doubt by concluding that he is actually well meaning, though very misguided, as history has proven his radical ideas are bad for humanity.