Column: Is Bernie Sanders an Eisenhower Republican?

The new Republican Party has turned so far hard right, that Bernie Sanders may now be considered an Eisenhower Republican.

This question was raised on a political blog. We seldom hear from other countries about our politics, and, when we do, we pay no attention, or, we make snide remarks because we believe they are meddling.

One response from a young woman from Australia caught my attention:

“I am an Australian (in Australia) and we are all following Bernie here. He is just a normal left leaning politician here - nothing radical about him at all.

The rest of your Democratic candidates we would consider Republicans here. (Hillary would not be permitted to continue as a politician here - voter protest would have ended her career years ago.)

Unfortunately, your Republicans are so far gone, that they resemble fascists. My father is an 87-year-old Polish refugee from the Holocaust, and he says to me all the time that your republicans are repeating the sins of Nazi pre-war Germany.

I can understand why you are “fed-up Republicans,” because we too, are fed-up with them, and we cannot believe how recklessly they have destroyed your country.”

As you are aware, my car-crazy, drag racing youth was during the Eisenhower administration. It was a very, very good time, relatively apolitical, except for the cold war, which no one paid any attention to, except the politicians. That “duck-and-cover” stuff did not exist in any school I attended. Not one person I knew, or talked to, was concerned about the Soviet Union bombing us. I was not involved in politics, nor was I interested.

“Ike” was as much a father figure to us as Roosevelt was to my father’s generation. He stopped the Korean “Conflict” in its tracks. We probably didn’t really know Eisenhower. Who was this guy?

Did Bernie or Ike make these comments? “A few families are fabulously wealthy, contribute far less than they should in taxes, and are indifferent to the poverty of the great masses of the people.”

“Broad purchasing power does not, therefore, exist, even for the domestic products of the nation. A country in this situation is fraught with continual instability. It is ripe for revolution. The mass of the people want and demand a change for the better, and hence two questions arise: First, will reform come in a peaceful, orderly way, or violently with ensuing chaos?”

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense, a theft. The cost of one modern, heavy bomber is this: a modern, brick school in more than 30 cities.”

“All the public services, with defense in the first line priority, must be financed by our free economy.”

Ike’s speeches were not controversial in 1960. This “spread-the-wealth” philosophy was very much accepted by most citizens. It was believed that societies that discourage vast accumulations of private wealth were better.

James Baker is a 38-year resident of Indian Hill.