So Fidel instituted a literacy program...

(edited 227-20)

Great. But were there books for his allegedly literate comrades to read?  Even if there were, what were they?  What was the literacy rate before he came along, that the Cubans needed reeducation education?  For that matter, who told you they needed some schoolin'?  Fidel?

What reason do we have to believe that a revolutionary who belongs to a movement that has a long and rich tradition of propaganda is going to prioritize literacy (or is Bernie talking a lot about communal farms and national paved roads that I'm not hearing? We're not going to get into health care right now)...out of the goodness of his heart?

Even if he did...that's setting the bar pretty low.  Like "at least Hitler made the trains run on time" low--it's true, it's not bad, but it's not adequate justification.  Hell, Hitler was a passionate orator too, but I wouldn't want to spend a minute of my life listening to what he has to say.

I don't understand why people think "Bernie is consistent" is such a strong argument.  It's something, at least potentially, but consistency is only laudable when it's a good thing that's consistent.  Consistent cancer or mugging would not be good.

But Bernie's position?  At least he's not flip-flopping, and he's loyal to whomever who bought him, right?  

I suppose.  But he's had decades to revise his position after gathering new evidence.  I'm not so whacked that I expect he'd inevitably come around to my way of thinking if he made an honest effort, but I would expect that after the first dozen imploded second world states he would develop a little more nuance or sense of perspective.

This is the same failure that gets levied against the New Atheists, whichever ones they were who said "I was sitting there in my second grade class when it occurred to me how dumb an idea God was, and I have never seen the point of questioning the judgment of that eight year old child."

But "bread lines are a good thing," huh?  Everyone waits in line to get their fair share instead of billionaires hoarding everything before anyone else gets fed, right (assuming there would still be any billionaires)?  Well, not so much.  Over here, billionaires get more than they need, and more than everyone else, but most of the 99% still get not just enough but more than most of Bernie's idols; in the Eastern Bloc, Party officials got more than anyone else and got it first, regardless of whether what they got was enough or not--or whether those in the back of the line got anything at all.

Bad comes to worse, pull a Jean Valjean.  The universal destination of goods permits this.  The thing is, though, that in a bread line economy, there's no bread for Valjean to steal, but in a free market economy, there's more than enough left over after he's taken what he needed to feed his family.

That's the nice thing about having food waiting for people instead of the other way around.