Bernie Plagiarizes Stalin With 'Economic Bill Of Rights'

2020 presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders – who thinks Americans would be “delighted” to pay more in taxes – touted his ‘Economic Bill of Rights” during a Wednesday speech about Democratic Socialism.

Suggesting that he’s destined to carry out FDR’s “proposed economic bill of rights” which the former president was unable to enact due to an untimely death, Sanders pitched the crowd on “a 21st Century Economic Bill of Rights,” as RedState‘s Elizabeth Vaughn reports.

Yet as political expert and radio host Mark Levin pointed out on Fox News‘s HannitySanders has essentially plagiarized Joseph Stalin’s 1936 Soviet constitution, and “stolen his agenda.” 

RedState‘s Vaughn compares and contrasts:

Here is an excerpt from Sanders’ speech via RedState:

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A Bill of Rights that establishes once and for all that every American, regardless of his or her income in entitled to:

  • The right to a decent job that pays a living wage
  • The right to quality health care
  • The right to a complete education
  • The right to affordable housing
  • The right to a clean environment
  • The right to a secure retirement

These six “rights,” which define Sanders’ platform, are indistinguishable from the rights identified in the 1936 Soviet Constitution, which is also known as the Stalin Constitution.

Please read Articles 118-122 of this constitution. (Source: Bucknell University)

(Emphasis mine.)

ARTICLE 118. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to work, that is, are guaranteed the right to employment and payment for their work in accordance with its quantity and quality.

ARTICLE 119. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to rest and leisure. The right to rest and leisure is ensured by the reduction of the working day to seven hours for the overwhelming majority of the workers, the institution of annual vacations with full pay for workers and employees and the provision of a wide network of sanatoria, rest homes and clubs for the accommodation of the working people.

ARTICLE 120. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to maintenance in old age and also in case of sickness or loss of capacity to work. This right is ensured by the extensive development of social insurance of workers and employees at state expense, free medical service for the working people and the provision of a wide network of health resorts for the use of the working people.

ARTICLE 121. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to education. This right is ensured by universal, compulsory elementary education; by education, including higher education, being free of charge; by the system of state stipends for the overwhelming majority of students in the universities and colleges; by instruction in schools being conducted in the native language, and by the organization in the factories, state farms, machine and tractor stations and collective farms of free vocational, technical and agronomic training for the working people. Getting Libertarianism... Hoppe, Hans-Hermann Buy New $2.99 (as of 01:55 UTC - Details)

ARTICLE 122. Women in the U.S.S.R. are accorded equal rights with men in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social and political life. The possibility of exercising these rights is ensured to women by granting them an equal right with men to work, payment for work, rest and leisure, social insurance and education, and by state protection of the interests of mother and child, prematernity and maternity leave with full pay, and the provision of a wide network of maternity homes, nurseries and kindergartens.

***

And as Vaughn notes – about the only thing Bernie didn’t pluck from Stalin was the “right” to a clean environment, something humanity was far less concerned with in 1936.

Reprinted with permission from Zero Hedge.