9 Responses to Sen. Bernie Sanders Unfiltered: Return to the Gilded Age

1. Teddy Partridge October 17th, 2009 at 11:42 am «

   Wow, thanks, Bernie. Time to suit up in this class war, folks.
2. Ruth Calvo October 17th, 2009 at 1:20 pm «

   There used to be heroes on the earth like this, didn’t there? I have a dim memory of people being inspired and lifted by these leaders. Once upon a time, I think.
3. Hugh October 17th, 2009 at 5:27 pm «

   Sanders is one of a small handful of members who actually deserves to be in the Congress, looking at both the House and the Senate.
4. Elliott October 17th, 2009 at 5:52 pm «

   He is a marvel.
5. iremember54 October 17th, 2009 at 7:15 pm «

   We listen to Him, but His colleagues dismiss everything He says.

   He doesn’t have to convince us, we know these things.

   He is an independant wonder, and a wonderful man, but one does not a Government make.

   Our Government is not just charged with protecting us from terrorists, it is charged to protect us from the greedy money changers to. They won’t protect us when they are sleeping with the greedy money changers.

   The answer is to change the Government. The one that doesn’t work for us anymore. Not just vote and hope like we have been doing for years, is not the answer. We have let it get to the point that we are at the mercy of our Government, instead of it being of, by, and for us. The people we elect as our representatives, have become our deciders. Deciding what we get, and what we don’t. They decide to spend our money on us, or on some other country. They have decided to spend us into unrecoverable debt, while selling us out at every turn.

   Only when the American people get to the point that enough is enough, and meaning it will things get fixed. As long as we believe voting, changing parties, and that our two party system and crooked politics is working and the best system in the world we are, asking for our decline, if not distruction. The longer we wait the worse it will get, and the point of no return may be upon us.
6. acquarius74 October 17th, 2009 at 8:28 pm «

   Recommended. Thank you, Elliott. Sometimes I think Sen. Sanders is the only one of about 5 rational beings left in DC.
7. KarenM October 17th, 2009 at 8:51 pm «

   For an unsentimental look at the gilded age, read Edith Wharton. She is unequaled in writing about that period. In fact, many of her class considered her a traitor for writing about it as she did. Anything by Wharton is great, but I have a special “fondness” for The House of Mirth.

   In a word, everything she writes/wrote is inexorable. Just like the times we live in seem to be right now.

   For those who prefer film, there is also The Age of Innocence, though without some of the nuances of the print version. And there’s a mini-series of The Buccaneers that has an excellent cast. (Both are available on NetFlix & InstantView) The Buccaneers was her final novel and unfinished at her death, but she had left adequate notes about its ending.
• RickinSF October 18th, 2009 at 1:56 pm «

  I watched the film with my kid, who was studying the “Gilded Age” in her middle-school history. It was not as good as the book, natch, but very instructive to an impressionable 13-year old who reached an epiphany, “…the ‘good old days’ really sucked if you had no money, huh Daddy?”
8. SanderO October 18th, 2009 at 6:29 pm «

   Bernie is right on every issue. His colleagues are wrong on every issue.