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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerican Democracy Down for the Count
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/01/28/american-democracy-down-countFour years on, thinking I should settle down, I returned to the United States. It felt quite a lot like stepping back into that other violent, impoverished world, where anxiety runs high and people are quarrelsome. I had, in fact, come back to the flip side of Afghanistan and Iraq: to what Americas wars have done to America. Where I live now, in the Homeland, there are not enough shelters for the homeless. Most people are either overworked or hurting for jobs; housing is overpriced; hospitals, crowded and understaffed; schools, largely segregated and not so good. Opioid or heroin overdose is a popular form of death; and men in the street threaten women wearing hijab. Did the American soldiers I covered in Afghanistan know they were fighting for this?
One night I tuned in to the Democrats presidential debate to see if they had any plans to restore the America I used to know. To my amazement, I heard the name of my peaceful mountain hideaway: Norway. Bernie Sanders was denouncing Americas crooked version of casino capitalism that floats the already rich ever higher and flushes the working class. He said that we ought to look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway, and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people.
He believes, he added, in a society where all people do well. Not just a handful of billionaires. That certainly sounds like Norway. For ages theyve worked at producing things for the use of everyone -- not the profit of a few -- so I was all ears, waiting for Sanders to spell it out for Americans.
But Hillary Clinton quickly countered, We are not Denmark. Smiling, she said, I love Denmark, and then delivered a patriotic punch line: We are the United States of America. Well, theres no denying that. She praised capitalism and all the small businesses that were started because we have the opportunity and the freedom in our country for people to do that and to make a good living for themselves and their families. She didnt seem to know that Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians do that, too, and with much higher rates of success.
One night I tuned in to the Democrats presidential debate to see if they had any plans to restore the America I used to know. To my amazement, I heard the name of my peaceful mountain hideaway: Norway. Bernie Sanders was denouncing Americas crooked version of casino capitalism that floats the already rich ever higher and flushes the working class. He said that we ought to look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway, and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people.
He believes, he added, in a society where all people do well. Not just a handful of billionaires. That certainly sounds like Norway. For ages theyve worked at producing things for the use of everyone -- not the profit of a few -- so I was all ears, waiting for Sanders to spell it out for Americans.
But Hillary Clinton quickly countered, We are not Denmark. Smiling, she said, I love Denmark, and then delivered a patriotic punch line: We are the United States of America. Well, theres no denying that. She praised capitalism and all the small businesses that were started because we have the opportunity and the freedom in our country for people to do that and to make a good living for themselves and their families. She didnt seem to know that Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians do that, too, and with much higher rates of success.
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American Democracy Down for the Count (Original Post)
KamaAina
Jan 2016
OP
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)1. K&R nt
dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)2. Excellent find, thanks