ANDREW MORAN
It looks like Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) won’t need to rely on the Das Kapital One card anymore. Why? Because he recently became a part of the much vilified 1%.
For the last thirty years, Sanders has toured the U.S., shouting about providing free tuition, talking about how the U.S. must emulate Scandinavia and proclaiming how wonderful government bread lines are. After decrying the sins of capitalism and espousing the virtues of socialism to million of avocado toast-loving millennials, the socialist is finally starting to cash in thanks to capitalism.
According to newly released Senate financial disclosures, the former presidential candidate earned $1.042 million in 2016.
In addition to his $174,000 annual salary from being a senator, Sanders also earned $795,000 from an advance for his upcoming book, “Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In.” He also made an extra $64,000 for another book aimed at teenagers entitled “The Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution.”
That isn’t all. His wife, Jane, who helped bankrupt a private college, maintains mutual funds worth as much as $815,000. Also, his new property, a four-bedroom waterfront house on Lake Champlain in Vermont, is hidden behind a family trust called Islands Family Trust, notes The Daily Wire.
Sen. Sanders is living quite the life: a million bucks in the bank, three houses and a lot of money to start redistributing the wealth. Oh, wait…he’s a socialist; he would never voluntarily give anything away.
So, when is the senator going to write a big fat check that gives 70% of his income to the government?
Nobody should ever reproach another person for being successful. That is what everybody aims to do in this life. That said, for years, Sanders has complained about the affluent, lamented on the evils of the free enterprise system and averred how every rich person in the U.S. needs to redistribute the wealth.
In April, Sanders sent out a tweet that quickly went viral for the hilarious irony:
How many yachts do billionaires need? How many cars do they need? Give us a break. You can’t have it all.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 21, 2017
Back in the distant past of February 2016, Sanders told CNBC:
At the end of the day, you don’t necessarily need the choice of twenty-three underarm spray deodorants or eighteen different pairs of sneakers when children are hungry in this country.
The obvious question, using the logic of Sanders, is: why does somebody need three homes, particularly when there are homeless and starving children in the U.S.? When will he house and feed the impecunious?
The senator’s insincerity doesn’t end there.
Since his rise to prominence, there have been multiple reports showcasing the fact that he doesn’t practice what he preaches. For instance, he regularly muses about a so-called living wage of $15, but it was discovered that he pays his interns $12. Akin to other leftists, Sanders moaned about millionaires and billionaires spending big money on political campaigns, except if they contributed to his White House aspirations as he spent some of his free time with wealthy real estate moguls and celebrities.
It is the blatant hypocrisy that so many conservatives and libertarians find funny.
This type of behavior isn’t just confined to Sanders. Other leftists can’t resist the benefits of a system they think is odious.
Throughout much of his career, former President Barack Obama bashed capitalism, the marketplace, Wall Street, executive compensation and the rich. A few months removed from public office, the former head of state is now cashing in with lucrative hour-long speeches to banks and private organizations. With that money, Obama, too, is purchasing opulent properties, taking expensive vacations and hanging out with the elite.
Here is an important question that will determine Sanders’s record for years to come: does he have more than one underarm deodorant and one pair of sneakers in any of his three homes?
What is truly frightening is that so many millennials are buying into his nonsense.
In October 2016, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) released the results of a study that found a growing number of young people are rejecting capitalism in favor of socialism and communism. For example, most of the polled respondents agreed with the statement, “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” And only a third of millennials held a “very unfavorable view” of communism.
Marion Smith, executive director of the organization, said in a press release at the time:
One of the concerns the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation has had since its establishment is that an emerging generation of Americans have little understanding of the collectivist system and its dark history. Unfortunately, this Report, which we intend to release on an annual basis, confirms this worrisome impression.
This report clearly reveals a need for educating our youth on the dangerous implications of socialist ideals. We will continue to work with educators to build curriculum to address this important need.
When you have a situation where the government education system is dreadful and an envious populace that wants something for nothing, you will inevitably have people hold the likes of Bernie Sanders in high regard. It is indeed a sad state of affairs.
