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Cheese Sandwich

(9,086 posts)
3. Can we make a distinction between philosophy and policy?
Mon Oct 19, 2015, 11:40 PM
Oct 2015

For example George Bush's philosophy was evangelical Christian, but his policy was neo-conservative.

Somehow his Christianity informed his conservative policies.

Bernie calls himself a democratic socialist. I assume he has access to the internet and he's read up on it before slinging the words around. I would say his philosophy may be democratic socialist, because that's what he says.

But his policies I would just call progressive. Those policies are pretty popular in America, and within the mainstream of the progressive movement. He's on the leading edge but still within the mainstream of elected progressives.

I would say his democratic socialist background and ideas inform his progressive policies, and he's trying to angle us toward social democracy.

But he's motivated by the democratic socialist idea that people should be able to participate in the decisions that effect us, and that we all work together to produce the wealth of society, and so that wealth should be distributed very broadly.

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