Bernie Won the War, Making U.S. Less Special
America’s turn to the left certainly makes it less of an outlier relative to its G-20 peers.
Regarding Juan Williams’s “Clinton Won the Battle, Sanders Won the War” (op-ed, July 25): Hillary Clinton is running on a Democratic platform shaped by Sen. Bernie Sanders’s socialist vision, so there is no disputing the ideological victory of her primary opponent. If the new far-left millennial base of the party propels her to victory in November, we will see whether the economy is collateral damage in the democratic-socialist reconstruction.
America’s turn to the left certainly makes it less of an outlier (or less exceptional, depending on perspective) relative to its G-20 peers. The Journal’s same-day “Nations Aim for ‘Inclusive’ Growth” (World News) reported that G-20 finance chiefs meeting in China made inclusive growth a core goal of the world’s largest economies. This means enacting more budget stimulus, pursuing labor-force retraining, raising minimum wages, overhauling tax policies to put a larger burden on higher earners and expanding government benefit programs. G-20 inclusive growth (or shared growth) policies sound a lot like the Democratic Party’s platform.
Democratic-socialism and inclusive growth are similar codes for increased government control over the economy and greater income redistribution. Relative to its G-20 peers, the U.S. still has an overall economic freedom rating that is higher than average (though no longer in the world’s top 10). Sen. Sanders’s minions may realize their inclusive growth or socialist dreams and then, like the rest of the world’s believers in big government, come to grips with the nasty reality of exchanging less freedom for more sharing of less growth. Inclusive growth, by the way, is a euphemism for collectivism.
William Hogan
Savannah, Ga.
Juan Williams declares that the Democratic Party “is now Bernie Sanders’s party: Other Democrats—including Hillary Clinton—are merely living in it.” Where has Mr. Williams been for the past year? Sen. Sanders didn’t win among Democrats; he lost every closed primary. He isn’t now nor has he ever been a Democrat, and we don’t view him as one. Sen. Sanders parachuted into the party to get a platform for his ideas but then spent most of this year trashing that party. He’s like the uninvited guest who comes into a house that he neither built nor owns, then demands to rearrange the furniture. We went to the polls and told him “No.”
Vaughn A. Carney
Stowe, Vt.
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