Special Reports & Tweets - 20160310_SpecialReport-2_Alex
Aired: 2016-03-10
Duration: 03:59


=== Difference Between Democrat and Socialist (03:59) ===

[00:00:00]  In an otherwise softball interview with Chris Matthews, Hillary Clinton seemed a little
[00:00:14]  bit rattled when she was asked to explain the difference between a Democrat and a Socialist.
[00:00:19]  What's the difference between a Socialist and a Democrat?
[00:00:22]  Is that a question you want to answer or would you rather not?
[00:00:24]  Well, you know, you'd have to ask... Well, see, I'm asking you.
[00:00:27]  You're a Democrat, he's a Socialist.
[00:00:29]  Would you like somebody to call you a Socialist?
[00:00:31]  I wouldn't like somebody calling me a Socialist.
[00:00:32]  But I'm not one.
[00:00:34]  Okay, well what's the difference between a Socialist and a Democrat?
[00:00:36]  Well, I can tell you what I am.
[00:00:38]  I am a progressive Democrat.
[00:00:39]  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.
[00:00:49]  So this is the party's leading candidate.
[00:00:52]  But Matthews was equally flustered last year when he asked the same question to the party's leading officer, Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
[00:00:59]  What is the difference between a Democrat and a Socialist?
[00:01:04]  I used to think there was a big difference.
[00:01:05]  What do you think it is?
[00:01:08]  What's the difference between being a Democrat and being a Republican?
[00:01:14]  What's the big difference between a Democrat and a Socialist?
[00:01:17]  You're the chairman of the Democratic Party.
[00:01:18]  Tell me the difference between you and a Socialist.
[00:01:20]  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?
[00:01:27]  So it's really difficult for them to explain the difference because there is no difference in the current contemporary Democratic Party.
[00:01:33]  So since Bernie Sanders came on the scene introducing this term Democratic Socialism there into the mainstream, people are rightly confused.
[00:01:41]  Here is the gist of it.
[00:01:43]  This is socialism.
[00:01:44]  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.
[00:01:54]  And how's that going to be paid?
[00:01:58]  Great question.
[00:01:59]  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.
[00:02:08]  Now, socialists, they say, they're characterized by common ownership and democratic control of the means of production.
[00:02:15]  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.
[00:02:28]  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?
[00:02:38]  Unless you're Hillary Clinton or part of the ruling class.
[00:02:41]  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
[00:02:49]  and of course hoping that we're all going to need big government take
[00:02:53]  care of us.
[00:02:53]  But presently this ideology is being pushed through in a very totalitarian
[00:02:58]  way via the Democratic Party. So it looks very much like
[00:03:01]  the totalitarian socialist society of the Hunger Games. That movie does an excellent job
[00:03:08]  kind of foreshadowing what that society would look like.
[00:03:12]  But let's take a look at the website of the Democratic Socialists of America.
[00:03:16]  This is what they have to say about the Democratic Party versus
[00:03:19]  socialists. So the question is aren't you a party that's in competition with the
[00:03:23]  Democratic Party for votes and support?
[00:03:25]  No, we are not a separate party.
[00:03:28]  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.
[00:03:37]  We work with those movements to strengthen the party's left wing.
[00:03:41]  We hope that at some point in the future, in coalition with our allies, an alternative national party will be viable.
[00:03:47]  For now, we'll continue to support progressives who have a real chance at winning elections, which usually means left-wing Democrats.
[00:03:55]  I am a progressive Democrat.
[00:03:57]  So what's the difference between a Democrat and a socialist?