Bernie Sanders, "Our Revolution" FINAL BOOK REVIEW

02 October 2019 [link youtube]


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Youtube Automatic Transcription

we've got to talk one last time about
Bernie Sanders best-selling book our revolution a book that sold over 200,000 copies and yet mysteriously if you search here on YouTube you will find almost nobody ever posted a book review video nobody ever posted a roundtable political discussion of the contents of this book compare that to the number of YouTube videos you will find responding to and discussing the philosophy of jordan Peterson's twelve steps to be a completely fatuous self-important [ __ ] whatever his best-selling book okay both books were legitimate bestsellers the difference is this is a book hundreds of thousands of people purchased but that nobody actually read included in that category of nobody I must say our American journalists I've now listen to countless hours of so-called political experts employed as journalists in the United States of America including journalists who were interviewing Bernie Sanders face to face none of those people seemed to be aware of what is in this book obviously the majority of his election promises and the rationale for them and the plan is set out very clearly in this book now why is this how is it possible that Bernie Sanders went from being the most discussed most influential politician in the United States of America to being in like third place after Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren in some polls yeah I know sometimes Jason said whatever King being a distant second at best how was it that Bernie Sanders who ended up being the underdog in a race that he seemed to dominate before it ever began a race in which he was the only one with the best-selling book in which he had far more money far more small donors far more support for more public interest and he also had the heroic story of his David & Goliath battle against Hillary Clinton all kinds of reasons why Bernie Sanders ought to be the most successful political leader ought to be dominating the discourse but he's not the hypothesis I'm gonna put forward in this video is basically that what people respond to in politics are not ideas but are the potential for real world change and what Bernie Sanders has presented are a lot of ideas that just do not have that kind of credibility that people just do not feel there's any threat or any chance of them ever actually happening even if Bernie Sanders is elected especially not when he stacked his own deck with so many nearly impossible to accomplish promises my girlfriend asked me to talk about the green New Deal so I'm gonna talk about it this video otherwise honestly it wouldn't it wouldn't be one of the issues discussed here green New Deal ecological policy proposed by Bernie Sanders he himself estimates the cost at sixteen point three trillion sixteen point three trillion dollars would you like to know how much tax revenue the United States of America has per annum 1.5 trillion now Bernie Sanders has some excellent ideas to increase tax revenue the United States Bernie Sanders policy on taxation is much much better than Andrew Yang's policy Andrew yang is proposing a horrible regressive value-added tax absolutely terrible Bernie Sanders has proposed that every man woman and child earning more than 1 billion dollars can I repeat everyone with more than 1 billion dollars in wealth so I misspoke the first time this is about wealth not income will have a 10% tax on their wealth okay so that's that's in the book here I believe from memory the book says there are actually only 560 individuals in America who have over 1 billion dollars whether it's 560 or 600 this is not even the 1% this is a tiny number of unbelievably wealthy individuals and when you tax their wealth that's not just taxing the amount of money they made this year some of these people own 10 houses each house is worth a million dollars or many millions dollars it would be a tax of their total wealth that would indeed be a huge amount of money flowing into the coffers of the American government and would have profound effects on inequality in America would have profound long-term effects on say it's a whole great concept great again but um I don't think I don't think the new taxes proposed by Bernie Sanders would increase the revenue from 1.5 trillion to more than 3 trillion I don't think the effect is gonna be that dramatic and even if it were even if Bernie Sanders managed to double the amount of money collected by the US federal government should be an amazing accomplishment for any politician to double the tax revenue of a nation that that size he's not just promising a 1.6 pardon me pardon me a 16 trillion 16 trillion I was gonna say 1.6 joy no no a 16 trillion dollar environmental policy package the Green Deal he's also promising to make university tuition free do you want to estimate how many Tryon that's gonna be he's promising to make Medicare free for all ride medical care not just for the poor but for all Americans cost free trillions trillions of dollars these add up I think there's a fundamental sense in the American body politic that what Bernie Sanders is talking about doing is not plausible enough to be worth debating it's not plausible enough to be worth reading and that's why here on YouTube I see no serious discussion of the ideas and and policy plans set out in this book and why even none of the journalists talking to him really discuss that stuff now it's a tragedy because there's another way of presenting what Bernie Sanders represents that's much more down-to-earth and practicable and attainable and those of you who be following his career well right away recognize this as one one strain of his thought or one genre of rhetoric he sent us employees every so often he says hey I've been to Detroit and I've been across the river to Canada why is it that medical care cost so much more in Detroit than in Canada why is it that specific medicines are ten times more expensive in Detroit than if you just go across the border to Canada why is it that Americans are being ripped off don't you tell me that America can't accomplish the same thing Canada has in terms of providing people with reasonable cheap accessible health care don't you tell me that America can't accomplish the same things that Scotland already has or Taiwan already has single-payer health care Taiwan actually is an especially pure example of a single home single-payer health care system there's another face to Bernie Sanders where he frankly and bluntly represents America as being 50 years behind the accomplishments of other countries in Europe and other countries in Asia and says of course we can accomplish this what do you think people in Scotland are geniuses do you think people in Canada are geniuses do you think people these other countries have some advantages we can't possibly have and I've said this before this is very reminiscent of a particular documentary by Michael Moore in which he went around to Italy and Denmark to these different countries he felt represented accomplishments in public policy that America should should aspire to catch up with so that is one school of thought within the mainstream American left unfortunately I think the reality is in 2016 the only reason why Bernie Sanders is not dominating the race because he started off so far ahead he should be he should he should be far far ahead of Joe Biden he should be far far ahead of Elizabeth Warren I mean just in terms of Fame and and name recognition you know at the end of the race with you know Hillary Clinton people barely knew who Elizabeth Warren was and and to the extent to which they did know she was she was just associated with these you know claims and counterclaims but whether or not she had American a Native American ancestry first nations an accesory indigenous answer really not a great place for her to start her campaign um Bernie Sanders should be leading the race and the discussion of his best-selling book and what it would mean for America's future should be at the top of the policy debate platform here on YouTube on talk radio and everywhere else and it isn't because people fundamentally do not find it plausible none of them believe that they can wake up I don't know five years from now and live in a country where college tuition is free where medical care is free for everyone where you have been 16 trillion dollars poured into ecological adaptation the occult economy economy no one believes even that is his foreign policy is viable okay we just had an event in the news you guys may not follow this stuff the Houthi rebels had a big victory against Saudi Arabia this is in Yemen this is the disputed you know Yemen Saudi Arabia subcontinent okay does anyone really believe that Bernie Sanders is gonna cross his arms and allow the Taliban to take over Afghanistan to let human blood spill don't forget Barack Obama was talking about withdrawing from Iraq entirely and then you had the Yazidi crisis you had this bizarre situation where Yazidis and ethnic minority were being massacred and the women abducted into sex slavery and you know there was footage of this evidence of this and journalists were interviewing survivors and all of a sudden Barack Obama is the most Pro war person he has to intervene to save the Yazidis guess what there are people who need saving in Afghanistan there people who need saving in Iraq and even Saudi Arabia in Yemen just just do a Google search for who the who TR is do a Google search for what Iran is up to I know nobody on the left is gonna do this I know that absolutely nobody on the left is willing to look into why Israel is terrified of Iran and what Iran is doing in Lebanon I know you're not gonna do it I know that everyone left of center the United States of America just wants to sit there self righteously and say Oh Donald Trump is bad and evil and wrong because he's daring to admit to himself the same way Benjamin Netanyahu does that Iran really is a threat to the political status quo not just on that comment but hopefully okay yeah well you know what Donald Trump is stupid but even a broken watch is Right twice a day okay no one can really believe that Bernie Sanders will actually end US military hegemony and then sit back with his arms crossed and watch the consequences unfold not even for Afghanistan which is maybe the place on earth Americans now care the least about even though they are themselves the most morally responsible for the outcomes of whatever happens next in that war-torn country the war you brought to them the democratic system you created the hopes of the future of the education system the universities American taxpayers dollars bills to abandon all that to let Afghanistan revert to being the world's number one terrorist training crossroads the world's number one opium producing opium exporting theocratic despotism where women don't have the right to go to school nobody believes the promises Bernie Sanders is making in domestic policy or in foreign policy and the tragedy is despite all these things Bernie Sanders probably is the best bet any of you have for a better future he's better than Donald Trump he's better than Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden you've got to be joking