Pleased to see our viral Facebook discussion about Sanders and socialism go from a little polemic (https://www.facebook.com/GKKasparov/posts/10154026469573307) to an article (http://www.thedailybeast.com/…/garry-kasparov-hey-bernie-do…) to a real discussion in the news in this Washington Post article. Interesting that the Sanders campaign has declined to discuss my articles, but not surprising. Not because they are wrong and I am right, but because discussing the soul of America and the long-term impact of government intervention is a lot harder than promising free stuff you can’t pay for.
From what I see from many of Bernie’s defenders in the comments here, they want to have it both ways. Whatever is bad either isn’t socialism at all or wasn’t socialist enough! This tradition does go back to the USSR, where our constant hardship was blamed on not being pure enough in following the teachings of Lenin, for example. Corrupt officials, inefficient bureaucracies, external enemies and internal saboteurs—there are always plenty of scapegoats for why socialist regimes impoverish and imprison their citizens. Socialism is such an attractive theory that it’s far too easy to ignore that it always fails in practice.… Read More
