EquALLity wrote:
Yeah, he's vegan... That does make me think he's genuinely an environmentalist, but he's not necessarily progressive in other regards. For example, the drug price issue. Even Ted Cruz supported that bill.
Do you know anything more about it than what the Young Turks claimed?
http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/import-canadian-drugs-another-half-baked-idea/
Please read that in full.
Republicans are supporting some of these bills because they're populist positions. They're inherently broken attempts at solving real problems, which is why Booker didn't support it.
EquALLity wrote:Bernie Sanders isn't a hypocrite because he supports dairy subsidies. It's generally acknowledged in politics that there should be subsidies for certain industries.
Subsidies for industries that are in the public good or HELP the environment. I would not have criticized him for supporting solar subsidies, even though I don't consider solar a viable solution yet. Dairy harms the environment, he's just pandering to his voters and offering them a kickback as a bribe for votes. It's unethical subsidization like this that's the real problem of money in politics; theft of money from the people for the good of a narrow subset of special interests.
EquALLity wrote:That's not "stealing money" from taxpayers anymore than regular taxation is.
It's stealing when you take money that's meant to be used for the public good and you instead use it to pay special interests for votes, benefiting only your base and hurting everybody else and the world. Sanders is deeply corrupt, and guilty of graft here for his own political gain.
EquALLity wrote:Why is Bernie Sanders "the dairy subsidy man"? Just because he supports subsidies for the dairy industry? I'm sure lots of politicians do, particularly those from rural areas.
They do, and they're assholes too, but they aren't on a crusade against other politicians for taking money from donors while stealing it from the government/tax payers to give to a certain subset of special interest supporters as a bribe for votes.
Other politicians: Corporate money which is taken out of rich people's pockets (no explicit strings attached) -> Advertisement -> convince people to vote for you with arguments.
Sanders: Government/Public money which is taken away from legitimate public good programs and increases the national debt -> bribe special interest voters directly with subsidies with an explicit "vote for me and I'll give you government money" message.
Sanders is much worse than anything he criticizes.
EquALLity wrote: It's good for business in those areas,
So is subsidizing oil companies and passing laws that benefit them good for their business, and it's good for the people they employ (and pretty much only those people). That's not an excuse to give oil free money, and it's not an excuse to give it to dairy, it's a public ill either way, and Sanders is stealing money that's meant for public good for his own gain through bribery of his base.
EquALLity wrote:You have to understand also, there's kind of a significant generational gap there. Bernie Sanders is like 150. He might not even know the word vegan. Cory Booker is a lot younger.
Most people who are vegan are really young, but there are some who are around Cory Booker's age. There are probably like 4 vegans worldwide who are 75 or above.
So, you're saying he's just an idiot? Is that better or worse than being corrupt?
Either way, I don't understand how you can support him. Surely he has been told that his support for dairy subsidies is a problem, and surely he ignored it like he did criticisms of his anti-nuclear position.
