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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| In an otherwise softball interview with Chris Matthews, Hillary Clinton seemed a little | |
| bit rattled when she was asked to explain the difference between a Democrat and a Socialist. | |
| What's the difference between a Socialist and a Democrat? | |
| Is that a question you want to answer or would you rather not? | |
| Well, you know, you'd have to ask... Well, see, I'm asking you. | |
| You're a Democrat, he's a Socialist. | |
| Would you like somebody to call you a Socialist? | |
| I wouldn't like somebody calling me a Socialist. | |
| But I'm not one. | |
| Okay, well what's the difference between a Socialist and a Democrat? | |
| Well, I can tell you what I am. | |
| I am a progressive Democrat. | |
| I'm a progressive Democrat who likes to get things done and who believes that we are better off in this country when we're trying to solve problems together. | |
| So this is the party's leading candidate. | |
| But Matthews was equally flustered last year when he asked the same question to the party's leading officer, Debbie Wasserman Schultz. | |
| What is the difference between a Democrat and a Socialist? | |
| I used to think there was a big difference. | |
| What do you think it is? | |
| What's the difference between being a Democrat and being a Republican? | |
| What's the big difference between a Democrat and a Socialist? | |
| You're the chairman of the Democratic Party. | |
| Tell me the difference between you and a Socialist. | |
| The relevant debate that we'll be having over the course of this campaign is, what's the difference between a Democrat and a Republican? | |
| So it's really difficult for them to explain the difference because there is no difference in the current contemporary Democratic Party. | |
| So since Bernie Sanders came on the scene introducing this term Democratic Socialism there into the mainstream, people are rightly confused. | |
| Here is the gist of it. | |
| This is socialism. | |
| So the three core demands of the National Day of Action are free public college, a cancellation of student debt, and a $15 an hour minimum wage for people who work on the campus. | |
| And how's that going to be paid? | |
| Great question. | |
| I mean, you know, so... Now, Margaret Thatcher famously said that the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money. | |
| Now, socialists, they say, they're characterized by common ownership and democratic control of the means of production. | |
| And, of course, this means there has to be a big state there to divvy up all of these goodies to everyone equally, making sure that the very basic needs of society are being taken care of. | |
| Now, the Democrats, they also agree, you know, they want equality for all, rule by the majority, and they pretend to believe that nobody should be too rich, right? | |
| Unless you're Hillary Clinton or part of the ruling class. | |
| And they also believe in a big, and I do mean a very big government, taking care of everyone. They want this huge welfare state | |
| and of course hoping that we're all going to need big government take | |
| care of us. | |
| But presently this ideology is being pushed through in a very totalitarian | |
| way via the Democratic Party. So it looks very much like | |
| the totalitarian socialist society of the Hunger Games. That movie does an excellent job | |
| kind of foreshadowing what that society would look like. | |
| But let's take a look at the website of the Democratic Socialists of America. | |
| This is what they have to say about the Democratic Party versus | |
| socialists. So the question is aren't you a party that's in competition with the | |
| Democratic Party for votes and support? | |
| No, we are not a separate party. | |
| Like our friends and allies in the feminist, labor, civil rights, religious and community organizing movements, many of us have been active in the Democratic Party. | |
| We work with those movements to strengthen the party's left wing. | |
| We hope that at some point in the future, in coalition with our allies, an alternative national party will be viable. | |
| For now, we'll continue to support progressives who have a real chance at winning elections, which usually means left-wing Democrats. | |
| I am a progressive Democrat. | |
| So what's the difference between a Democrat and a socialist? |
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