Sanders’ ‘Economic Bill of Rights’ adapted from Stalin

On Wednesday, 2020 hopeful Bernie Sanders delivered a major speech about Democratic Socialism.

Sanders understands that many Americans view the term “socialist” as a “slur” and sought the opportunity to clear up some of the myths and allow us to see how great socialism really can be.

Sanders devotes most of his speech to railing about the oligarchs and warning us about how dangerous Trump is, all the while positioning himself as the solution Americans have been searching for. He told supporters, “In 1944, FDR proposed an economic bill of rights but died a year later and was never able to fulfill that vision.” Sanders then presented himself as a modern-day FDR and said he hopes to complete the work which FDR began.

Finally, Sanders introduces the centerpiece of his platform, which he calls “a 21st Century Economic Bill of Rights.”

However, there’s something deeply disturbing about Sanders’ proposal. In an appearance on Hannity, political commentator and historian Mark Levin points out that Sanders has “stolen his agenda from the 1936 Soviet Constitution.”

Here is an excerpt from Sanders’ speech:

A Bill of Rights that establishes once and for all that every American, regardless of his or her income is entitled to:

The right to a decent job that pays a living wage
The right to quality health care
The right to a complete education
The right to affordable housing
The right to a clean environment
The right to a secure retirement

These six “rights,” which define Sanders’ platform, are indistinguishable from the rights identified in the 1936 Soviet Constitution, which is also known as the Stalin Constitution.

Please read Articles 118-122 of this constitution. (Source: Bucknell University)

(Emphasis in the original.)

ARTICLE 118. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to work, that is, are guaranteed the right to employment and payment for their work in accordance with its quantity and quality.

ARTICLE 119. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to rest and leisure. The right to rest and leisure is ensured by the reduction of the working day to seven hours for the overwhelming majority of the workers, the institution of annual vacations with full pay for workers and employees and the provision of a wide network of sanatoria, rest homes, and clubs for the accommodation of the working people.

ARTICLE 120. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to maintenance in old age and also in case of sickness or loss of capacity to work. This right is ensured by the extensive development of social insurance of workers and employees at state expense, free medical service for the working people and the provision of a wide network of health resorts for the use of the working people.

ARTICLE 121. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to education. This right is ensured by universal, compulsory elementary education; by education, including higher education, being free of charge; by the system of state stipends for the overwhelming majority of students in the universities and colleges; by instruction in schools being conducted in the native language, and by the organization in the factories, state farms, machine and tractor stations and collective farms of free vocational, technical and agronomic training for the working people.

ARTICLE 122. Women in the U.S.S.R. are accorded equal rights with men in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social and political life. The possibility of exercising these rights is ensured to women by granting them an equal right with men to work, payment for work, rest and leisure, social insurance and education, and by state protection of the interests of mother and child, prematernity and maternity leave with full pay, and the provision of a wide network of maternity homes, nurseries and kindergartens.

The only “right” not stolen from the Stalin Constitution was the right to a clean environment. Climate change, obviously, was not an issue in 1936.

The National Review’s Kevin Williamson offers the best definition of socialism: “solidarity that is enforced at gunpoint, if necessary.”