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PAGE 5A
ForsythOpinion
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Bernie Sanders
Wins, Even
While Losing
MICHAEL BARONE
Columnist
Bernie Sanders is not
going gently into that
good night, at least not
yet.
After hearing Monday
from the Associated
Press that Hillary Clinton
had clinched the nomina
tion, after absorbing
Tuesday night a solid
defeat in the California
primary and losses in
three other states,
Sanders was still pledg
ing to go on campaign
ing for the District of
Columbia’s 20 delegates
in its primary next
Tuesday and to fight on
until the Democratic
National Convention
opens in Philadelphia
July 25.
It’s possible to ridi
cule Sanders’ protests
that he can still win the
nomination of a party of
which he’s never been a
member. But give him
credit. He won 42 per
cent of the popular vote
in primaries against
Hillary Clinton and a
whopping 62 percent of
the votes cast in caucus
es.
He carried 23 states,
from Maine to Hawaii,
and came within 2 per
cent of carrying five oth
ers. He carried or came
close to carrying white
Democrats nationally.
More importantly, he
moved Hillary Clinton —
and the Democratic Party
— well to the left.
Clinton reversed previ
ous positions and came
out against the Trans-
Pacific Partnership trade
agreement and against
the Keystone XL pipe
line. She promised that
she would effectively
end fracking, which has
sharply reduced oil and
natural gas prices, and
would discourage the
mining of coal.
She came close to
matching Sanders’ prom
ise of free college. She
repudiated her husband’s
1994 crime bill and his
support of financial
deregulation. Yes, a sec
ond President Clinton
could and probably
would welch on some of
these promises.
But she’s not going
back to the first President
Clinton’s policies.
Sanders can claim
more credit for moving
the Democratic Party
closer to his own politi
cal creed, socialism, than
any Democrat has cared
or dared to do before. He
did so with the critical
help of young voters, the
millennial generation,
who voted about 80 per
cent for him against
Clinton — and for whom,
multiple polls suggest,
his self-proclaimed
socialism is not a bug but
a feature.
A You Gov survey in
January, for example,
found that 43 percent of
under-30s were favorable
toward socialism and
only 26 percent unfavor
able. A 2015 Reason-
Rupe poll found 48 per
cent of under-35s posi
tive toward socialism. A
2010 Pew Research poll
found 43 percent of
under-30s positive
toward socialism, nearly
twice the 23 percent
favorable among those
over 30.
The promise of what
Mitt Romney infelici
tously called “free stuff”
may account for some of
the attractiveness of
socialism to Americans
too young to have any
living memory of the
collapse of communism
and to have been taught a
history that emphasizes
the iniquities of oppres
sive Western societies.
Hey, free college and
free health care don’t
sound so bad.
Those who have actu
ally had experience with
government-run econo
mies feel differently, as
one can see from recent
political results in Latin
America.
In Venezuela, the
socialism of the late
President Hugo Chavez
and his chosen successor,
Nicolas Maduro, has
destroyed the oil-rich
nation’s economy, to the
point that toilet paper,
groceries and medicines
are simply unavailable,
crime has soared to
world-high rates and pro
government thugs crack
down on protesters.
Voters elected an opposi
tion legislature, but
Maduro is defying the
law to stay in power.
In Argentina, voters in
December repudiated
leftist President Cristina
Kirchner and elected
businessman Mauricio
Macri. In Brazil, leftist
President Dilma
Rousseff was impeached
last month and removed
from office pending trial
in the Senate amid
record unemployment
and revelation of multi
million-dollar bribery
conspiracies.
Peru has just had a
close presidential elec
tion between two candi
dates both described by
Reuters as “business
friendly.”
Or look at Sanders’
favorite example,
Scandinavia, where gov
ernments have, as Emily
Elkins and Joy Pullman
write in The Federalist,
“opened their economies
to free market forces in
the 19905, sold off state
owned companies, eased
restrictions on business
start-ups, reduced barri
ers to trade and business
regulation and intro
duced more competition
into healthcare and pub
lic services.”
You didn’t hear much
about these develop
ments in the Democratic
primaries and caucuses.
Nor did you hear much
about the dismal perfor
mance of government
here in everything from
veterans’ hospitals to
Washington’s Metrorail.
You just heard bland
assurances that an
expanded government
could provide free good
ies without perceptible
costs or glitches.
Hillary Clinton’s left
ward lurch in response to
Sanders may not prevent
her from beating Donald
Trump. But it may not
serve America or the
Democratic Party well in
the long run.
Michael Barone is senior
political analyst for the
Washington Examiner, resi
dent fellow at American
Enterprise Institute and
longtime co-author of The
Almanac of American
Politics.
COPYRIGHT 2016
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‘Senid a letter to the editor to PO, Box 210 Cumming, GA 30028; fax it to (770) 889-6017; or e-mail it to editor@forsythniews.com.
Recipe sharing brings back memories
Any time there was a special
occasion or a pot luck meal there
were certain treats we could
expect. There was the coconut pie
from Christine Rogers, the red
velvet cake from Pat Harris, the
coconut cake with divinity icing
from Aunt Frances, and, of
course, the caramel cake from my
mother.
There was one lady who
brought an especially tasty casse
role one time that everyone raved
over. When asked about sharing
the recipe she remarked she didn’t
share recipes. From that time on
she carried home her casserole
with only a few bites out of it.
Recipe sharing became a big
deal in churches and community
organizations for several years
and is still a popular practice in
some places. On my kitchen shelf
are many books collected over the
years, and just thumbing through
them is a real pleasure.
Looking for a specific recipe, I
am often distracted by the names
below the recipe. The faces of the
person who submitted the recipe
flashes before my mind’s eye and
I stop and watch the scene and
remember that person and the way
LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR
Lake Lanier’s beaches
fouled by dogs
Last weekend, while boating on
Lake Lanier, my husband and I
pulled up on the beach of a favor
ite island (4 Big Creek). We were
astounded by what we saw:
everywhere we looked on the
beach were piles of dog poop,
spaced about one foot apart. We
literally could not get out of the
boat without stepping in it. The
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Mail letters to the Forsyth
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JULIANNE BOLING
Columnist
their life touched mine.
This week I browsed through
the Sawnee Association of the
Arts recipe book. It was done
around 1983 to raise funds for a
community center. I remembered
the dedication of many people
whose purpose it was to have a
venue for music, art and drama
for children in this county.
Many people will remember the
dedication of people like Helen
Brooks, Jim DeSana, Starr Rives,
and especially Ann Hamilton. The
funds were raised and the proper
ty was bought, but the times
changed and the building was
later sold to the county and is now
the tax commissioner’s offices.
I have to say here that their
efforts were not in vain. The cen
ter was constructed with a flat
floor hoping funds for the arts
would sustain the cost by renting
beach was disgusting and totally
unusable, not to mention very
unsanitary. I would hate to think
what would happen if a family
landed there and let their kids get
off to play on the beach. It would
appear that boaters have been
landing there, letting their dogs
off to “go,” and then getting the
dogs back on and leaving. This is
unacceptable.
This beautiful lake is being
cared for by groups that monitor
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This is a page of opinion — ours, yours and
others. Signed columns and cartoons are the
opinions of the writers and artists, and they
may not reflect our views.
it out for weddings and receptions
of all kinds. Even though their
foresight was good, the center
struggled for several years and a
new group on the Board decided
to sell.
The group who worked for the
center stimulated the interest in
art, music and drama in the com
munity and now we have some of
the best of all three in our schools
and in our communities. While
few people may recall the
Chicken House Festivals, the
Street Dances, the Art Festivals,
and other fundraisers, many will
recall the dedication of people
interested in providing this educa
tion for our future generations.
Schools now have art and music
departments and auditoriums.
Large choral groups and drama
groups abound in the county. Now
it is time for a larger auditorium
for performances. Are you listen
ing county and city leaders?
Julianne Boling’s column appears
each Sunday in the Forsyth County
News.
the water quality and remove
unsightly derelict boats and docks
from the shoreline. And now the
beaches are being fouled by irre
sponsible dog owners. When we
boated with our dog, we always
brought plastic bags and a scoop,
s 0 as not to leave anything behind.
Some people need to learn com
mon courtesy: Scoop the poop!
Jo Williams
Cumming