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Mostly, the Socialists ... uhh, I Mean, DEMOCRATS ... Whiffed in Miami

July 2, 2019 - 7:00am

New York City Mayor and presidential hopeful Bill DeBlasio took time from his departure schedule from South Florida following his debate performance Wednesday night to visit with airport workers. 

Speaking before a large group of striking laborers, in many ways he became perfectly emblematic of his fellow Democratic debaters. Serving as their avatar was not intentional, nor was it meant to be complimentary.

Over the course of two consecutive nights Miami was the stage for 20 candidates to square off and do their best to distinguish themselves in a very crowded field. Declarations were made, Spanish was invoked freely, and in the Sunshine State handouts were promised by the snow-shovelful. Perplexing promises rained down from the podium and denials about the economy were nearly as commonplace as the bickering.

This is not as easy of a slog as the Democrats expected. The prior months have seen their messaging become growingly extreme. So far, pledging massive giveaway programs, or eliminating private health insurance, and embracing socialism have not paved the way to an easy defeat of Donald Trump. The DNC has recently taken out its second line of credit within a month, to help it pay for the coming national convention as it is operating in the red. The GOP meanwhile has more cash on hand from donations, has no standing debt, and after Donald Trump officially announced he would run for reelection, he hauled in $24 million -- in one day!

While the press insists the nation has turned away from this administration, the cold facts seem to rebut that claim. And we did not see a calm force from White House hopefuls last week.

DeBlasio, after making himself noticed on the dais by becoming one of the more obnoxious participants, followed the lead of many of the candidates, making a personal appearance in the area. 

Elizabeth Warren made a spectacle of herself when she visited the Homestead immigrant detention center Tuesday. She was making accusations of the living conditions inside a facility she had not entered, invoking the lie of children sleeping in cages on the floors (the cage myth was repeated often on both nights). She also made a staggering comment that was the apex in a lack of self-awareness.

Through her foghorn, Warren made a seemingly passionate plea for funding to be provided for the mounting issues the country is facing at the borders. It sure sounded heartfelt, until you realized that the evening prior, there had been a vote in the Senate about that very issue -- except Warren missed the vote in order to go out and draw attention to herself on the trail. That's how important the issue was to her.

Notably missing from much of the four hours of teed-up questions was any mention of the Venezuelan crisis. An issue of sharp interest for many in the Miami area -- whether as natives from the impoverished land, or Cuban expats angry over that country’s involvement in propping up the totalitarian government -- went unchallenged by those debating. This is because the Democrats are largely in opposition to the Trump administration attempting to ease democracy back into Venezuela. The socialism-embracing blue party wouldn't dare stir the pot among the Latino audience with that one.

Then there was DeBlasio at Miami International. He was standing in front of a gathered SEIU crowd, speaking with a microphone. And while the throng of union workers were responding appropriately to his taglines, he then uttered the poison pill of a quote -- “Hasta la victoria siempre!” I do not care how supportive of a union crowd you may think you have, quoting the butcher of Havana, Che Guevara, to a roomful of Cuban-Americans is NOT the way to go. 

Even DeBlasio’s wan excuse and apology -- claiming not to know those were words directly associated with Castro’s famous henchman -- is chased off by facts. He was a supporter of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas in the 1980s, and more than that in college he actually studied Latin American politics while at Columbia. He has to have known exactly what he was saying to the wrong audience.

But this encapsulates the Democratic takeover of South Florida last week. It was filled with days of feigned expertise, pandering linguistics, self-aggrandizing photo-ops, and distemper on display under the stage lights. If anyone came away looking better following the show, it was the candidates who previously had received little exposure and distinguished themselves by appearing composed.

None of them came off as a charismatic leader, and many left an impression quite the opposite of endearing. Welcome to the campaign cycle everyone -- just 16 more months of this to go.

Brad Slager, a Fort Lauderdale freelance writer, wrote this story exclusively for Sunshine State News. He writes on politics and the industry and his stories appear in such publications as RedState and The Federalist.

Comments

There is indeed a lot to learn from foreign, government-run single-payer systems — just not what Sanders and others might like to hear. From Canada to the United Kingdom and even Scandinavia, single-payer systems have proven cripplingly expensive even as they limit patients’ ability to access quality care. Consider Canada’s true single-payer system. Patients must wait an average of more than two months to see a specialist after getting a referral from their general practitioner, according to the Fraser Institute, a nonpartisan Canadian think tank. Patients can expect to wait another 9.8 weeks, on average, before receiving the treatment they need from that specialist. Overall, Canadians now wait even longer than last year — and 97 percent longer than they did in 1993. Access to care is so poor, in fact, that 52,000 Canadians flee to the United States each year for medical attention. They refuse to wait in line for care as their health deteriorates. The situation is no better under Great Britain’s mainly government-run health system. As of this summer, 3.4 million Brits were stuck on waiting lists — a 36 percent uptick since 2010. Last year, about a million people had to wait more than four months to get treatment. Almost 300,000 waited at least six months. As with most centrally-controlled bureaucracies, the British health system is inefficient. According to a recent government report, the country’s National Health Service is plagued by problems like neglect, incorrectly-administered medications and inadequate care for the dying. In some cases, the report concluded that the treatment of patients was “appalling.” Last month, more than 40,000 young doctors threatened an all-out strike over their hours. As for Scandinavia, patients there would likely advise Sanders to reject socialized medicine. In recent years, Swedish residents have gravitated toward private insurance to avoid the rationed care and long wait times common in the country’s single-payer system. Today, roughly one in 10 Swedes — more than half a million people — has a private health insurance policy. As the Swedish economist Nima Sanandaji recently explained, the country’s socialist experiment has proven “such a colossal failure that few even in the left today view the memory as something positive.”

David, you mention only the negative stats you could find about universal healthcare from 2 of 191 nations w/o mentioning any of the bad within the US. The US spends over 10 times more on healthcare than the next highest country per capita, yet according to the completely non-partisan WHO, the US ranks 37th in healthcare quality and efficiency in the world, and has recently dropped out of the top 20 in terms of infant mortality and life expectancy rates. Not a real good return on investment, eh Dave?

Agreed. And the reason these bureaucratic health care systems fail is simple and unavoidable: In the process of eliminating the cost to the consumers, they effectively eliminate the price signal that is essential to any efficient delivery of scarce goods (in this case medical services and supplies).

So, what you are saying Bob, is gov't couldn't possibly perform the functions of public safety and rehabilitation efficiently and effectively because as a bureaucratic system they have eliminated the price signal that is essential to any efficient delivery of scarce goods (in this case public safety and rehabilitation)? Boom...mike drop.

"The goal of socialism is communism." -- Vladimir Lenin - The fact that any candidate (much less three or more) espouses to the same system of the USSR disqualifies the entire spoiled batch of loonies. Oh, need an MRI? that could easily take over a year or it may be denied entirely in the utopia of "free healthcare".

I needed an MRI and got denied... twice. And I have a group health plan PPO with a nice sizeable premium and deductible. The healthcare industry has been overrun by bureaucratic red tape and needs a total makeover. Prices are outrageous and the quality and level of care is terrible. Only after I went through 8 months of every single "other" type of test and therapy that the Dr. could fathom, would Blue Cross then approve my MRI. Absolutely riduculous

The uneducated left probably think Lenin was a member of the Beatles.

every industrialized nation in the world, including mostly democracies, has some from of universal healthcare and educational assistance, yet you espouse some McCarthyist rhetoric about the USSR and Leninism to try to scare people into believing your false narrative. Unfortunately, it has worked in some instances, there is a reason that 98% of uneducated Americans support this false narrative. As previously indicated by someone else earlier, the rest just have taken the time to educate themselves and know better... If you remember nothing else, remember this, this country was founded on the principles of a government, of the people, by the people, and FOR the people, not the bastardized version you espouse, which is government to the highest bidder...

Total B.S.

prove me wrong...

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