January 25^th

Whatever would I do without George Will? He is incredibly generous in providing misrepresentations in his columns for me to target so I’ll get right at it.

 Bernie Sanders, senator from Vermont and an avowed socialist, whom Will currently vilifies, begins by claiming Europe’s social democracies have some admirable policies.  But Will counters that the European Union has a 10% unemployment rate.  Greece, with a 25% unemployment rate, may be on its way out of the EU after today’s election. And Germany with 80 million people has a 5 percent unemployment rate so citing 10 percent unemployment for “social democracies“ is a tad misleading. Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway are all well below 10 percent and they, and Germany, all have far more progressive human support systems than we have, although we do have more millionaires per capita; Will does not brag about that.

Senator Bernie Sanders’ third party candidacy could have problems getting on enough ballots. Will points out that Governor George Wallace “with a shoestring budget and a negligible staff, ignite(d) a conflagration of grass roots support.” He got that support because his segregationist opinions appealed to the bigotry that still governed the views of many Americans in the mid-60s. His famous line, “Segregation today, tomorrow and forever” struck a chord with many. SCOTUS had only recently struck down the anti-miscegenation laws. It does surprise me that Will would use Wallace’s 1967 appeal to bigotry as evidence that a third party candidacy can get on the ballot now. Of course we have matured a trifle since the mid- 1960s; if poor Wallace knew we had a black president he wouldn’t just turn over in his grave, he would be spinning in it!

A further oversimplification is Will’s contention that colleges raise tuition to capture more subsidizing federal dollars now available. Unfortunately for Will’s argument the federal subsidies never fully cover tuition increases so the student must borrow more and more money. If Will were right, student indebtedness would be decreasing, but it is increasing and increasing dramatically. There are many reasons for tuition increases but chasing federal subsidies is not among them.