Thursday, March 28, 2024 -
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Socialism, Bernie-style

Not that it’s anything new, but socialism is said to be just great — for the other guy. It is the “people” whom the socialists want to help, provided, of course, that the equal help to be distributed to all does not include the socialist himself. Current case in point: Bernie Sanders, running for president on the Democratic socialist banner.

It turns out that the chief advocate of socialism in the US owns three houses, none of them inexpensive. There is his house in Burlington, Vermont. Then there is his island retreat, a summer residence in North Hero, Vermont. Then there is his townhouse in Washington, DC.

We don’t begrudge Bernie his three houses. Nor do we begrudge Michael Bloomberg his nine residences, some of them palatial, nor Joe Biden his $2 million house in Wilmington, Delaware or his $2.74 million vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware or his $20,000 a month rental in Washington, DC. Nor do we begrudge Elizabeth Warren her $4 million home in Cambridge, Mass. Nor do we begrudge President Trump his multiple residences, whose financial dimensions are small only by comparison to Bloomberg’s.

Let whomever can make a good real estate investment, or a wise business move, rejoice. What does bother us is the hypocrisy. Does Bernie’s socialism require three houses for each American? Does Joe Biden’s self-professed middle class status require some $5 million in total residential value? You understand our drift. It’s not the money, it’s the discrepancy, or, if you will, the hypocrisy.

By the way, Pete Buttigieg owns one home. Its estimated value is $230,000. That does not necessarily make him a better candidate, just as wealth does not necessarily make one a worse candidate. But a vast gap between one’s professed political ideals and one’s personal goals does say something.

Fact-source courtesy: “Mansion,” a Wall Street Journal section, which managed to report all this, and more, with a straight face.

Copyright © 2020 by the Intermountain Jewish News




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