2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: I have examined where my loyalties lie, you judge, I'll explain my position. [View all]Dragonfli
(10,622 posts)through my head on a regular basis.
We agree not only on the party regarding FDR's legacy (if only he had lived long enough to accomplish implementation of his Second bill of rights, AKA his economic bill of rights) but many other things as well
In many ways, ideologically speaking Bernie sanders is very similar to FDR, all the red-baiting and insults aimed at sanders as "a far leftist" etc. are ridiculous to those of us that know the party. In a manner of speaking, FDR was a Democratic Socialist in the same fashion as Bernie Sanders. Most of Bernie's platform (a refreshingly and unusually consistent one) mirror FDR's brand of infusing a little bit of Socialism into our Capitalistic society in order to bring about the changes needed not only to drag us out of the Great Depression, but also to create a more equitable America with the largest most prosperous middle class it had ever known, he also realized the need to strongly and fairly regulate Capitalism to prevent the excesses that had previously always lead to boom, bust cycles as well as the Depression itself, his plans worked quite well for nearly 40 years.
The most galling aspects of the labeling of Bernie Sanders as some sort of crazy far left lunatic involves the fact that most of his plan is to bring back what FDR gave us, which was expanded upon by later Democrats, Before the party changed, starting in the 80's and the Centrist movement that began to take it all away. in fact Sanders' most extreme ideas are simply ones adopted from the second bill of rights, he wishes IMO (with the help of a popular movement which would be necessary) and finding a way to take the corruption out of the party, simply to give us back what our party originally gave us that worked exceedingly well.
As far as the DLC/New Demorat/Third Way movement is concerned I wrote an OP that I am sure you would agree with that includes information you already know quite well that I think you might enjoy (if you haven't already)
New Democrats, The DLC and the Third Way.
There is something else, I fear that since the Great Recession and the ever continuing stripping away of the protections and societal improvements for the common man which was our Democratic FDR legacy, including safety nets and a more equitable share of the country's wealth that that legacy brought.
That a new gilded age is already upon us (complete with the greatest wealth disparity since the gilded age, by many accounts an even worse disparity) and that history is repeating itself, bringing us to the point we were before FDR. Part of that history was the rise of Fascism and if I am correct, Donald trump may be more of a threat than many realize. I also live near the Canadian Border, I lack the finances, but have you looked into landed alien status as a retreat option?
I have a friend that lives in Fort Erie (across the bridge from Buffalo) that enjoys this status and receives all the benefits and protections of a Canadian citizen (including healthcare and retirement). I do not know if such a thing is still an option, because she bought a small house there 30 years ago and lives in it, which is how she obtained the status. It may be worth looking into to see if such is still an option.
In any event, I really enjoyed your reply and replying back, have a great evening, I for one am going to sleep now.