Latest / Voices Of Life / Did You Know? - Bernard Sanders: The Long March of American Socialism | How One Man Corrupted the Democratic Party

Transcript

Did You Know? - Bernard Sanders: The Long March of American Socialism | How One Man Corrupted the Democratic Party · Voices Of Life

0:00
This is Voices of Life, and welcome to another
0:03
episode of Did You Know? Today we explore a story
0:07
that stretches across six decades of American
0:10
politics, a story of ideology, influence, and
0:14
the quiet reshaping of a major political party.
0:17
This episode is titled Bernard Sanders, The Long
0:21
March of American Socialism, and How One Man
0:24
Corrupted the Democratic Party. And now... Your
0:28
host, Pastor David, will guide us through the
0:31
history, the movement, and the consequences that
0:36
followed. Welcome to the Voices of Life, a ministry
0:40
of the Church for Life. I'm Pastor David. Did
0:44
you know that one man born in Brooklyn in 1941
0:47
has spent more than six decades reshaping the
0:52
American political conversation around socialism?
0:55
His name is Bernard... Bernie Sanders, and his
0:59
influence has reached far beyond Vermont. Bernie
1:04
Sanders began as a civil rights activist in Chicago,
1:07
arrested in 1963 for protesting segregated housing.
1:12
He was arrested for resisting arrests, which
1:16
at the time meant he was violent and was struggling
1:19
with law enforcement officers. I've looked at
1:21
some photos and he certainly was resisting without
1:24
any question. He lived on a socialist kibbutz
1:28
in Israel, then moved to Vermont, where he built
1:32
a political career from the ground up. By the
1:36
time he became mayor of Burlington in 1981, he
1:40
had already embraced the label Democratic Socialist.
1:44
That label would become his lifelong banner and
1:48
his political weapon. Sanders' message was simple,
1:53
but radical. Governments should control more
1:56
of the economy, redistribute wealth, and guarantee
2:00
universal benefits. He argued that capitalism
2:04
has failed ordinary Americans, and that socialism
2:08
was the cure. Let's move on to his congressional
2:11
years. Sanders entered Congress in 1991 as an
2:15
independent, but he had caucused with Democrats.
2:19
That arrangement gave him access to democratic
2:21
ballots and committee power without ever forming
2:25
a separate socialist party. Over the next 30
2:29
years, Sanders used that position to push socialist
2:32
ideas into the democratic mainstream. Medicare
2:36
for All, a government -run health care system.
2:39
Free college, taxpayer -funded higher education.
2:43
Wealth taxes, punitive taxation on the rich.
2:46
Well, he's a multimillionaire too, so that would
2:49
at least affect him as well. The Green New Deal,
2:53
massive federal control over energy and industry.
2:57
Each proposal expanded government power and blurred
3:00
the line between social democracy and outright
3:04
socialism. And you have to remember, the United
3:07
States is a constitutional republic. We're not
3:09
even a democracy. Even though we keep hearing
3:12
that word, and the only reason you hear the word
3:13
democracy is because the Democratic Party likes
3:17
it because it sounds like their name. But that's
3:19
not what we are. We are a constitutional republic.
3:22
Well, let's move on. The presidential campaigns
3:25
and the party transformation. Sanders in 2016
3:29
and 2020 put himself out in presidential campaigns.
3:33
They were watershed moments. He lost both races,
3:37
but he won something far more lasting. ideological
3:41
control. Remember we talked in another podcast
3:44
about ideology and the teachers and college professors
3:48
that have been pushing those things on our children.
3:51
But this is where he gained the control, at least
3:56
in the Democratic Party. His campaigns mobilized
3:59
millions of young voters under the banner Political
4:02
Revolution. He proved that socialism could be
4:07
marketed as compassion, and that democratic party
4:10
could be reshaped from within. By 2020, many
4:14
of Sanders' ideas had become standard democratic
4:17
talking points. The party that once championed
4:21
free enterprise, individual liberty, freedom
4:25
of expression, freedom of the press, freedom
4:29
of religion. Well, now it began to echo the rhetoric.
4:33
of redistribution and class struggle. Does that
4:37
sound familiar? If you look back at the Soviet
4:40
Union, you look at Cuba, you looked at Venezuela,
4:43
that's what happened. You had leaders that go
4:46
ahead and took it down a socialist path, and
4:48
very quickly, it made a very quick right turn
4:52
to, well, I don't know right, but anyway, it
4:56
made a quick turn to communism. And that's where
4:58
it went. And communism doesn't work. Socialism
5:02
doesn't work. That's why the economies of these
5:04
countries were bankrupt. That's why the people
5:07
suffered. There was always an elite. But the
5:11
mainstream people, the people that it's supposed
5:14
to help, actually suffered the most. So the last
5:20
15 or 20 years, the institutionalizing revolution.
5:24
And this is a big deal here. Since the mid -2000s,
5:28
Sanders has worked relentlessly to institutionalize
5:32
socialism in American politics. He helped found
5:35
Congressional Progressive Caucus, mentored figures
5:38
like Alexandria Ocasio -Cortez, and inspired
5:42
the Democratic Socialists of America, a movement
5:45
that operates inside the Democratic Party rather
5:47
than its own separate political entity. The DSA,
5:51
they put out their manifesto just about two months
5:55
ago. and it reads from a communist propagandist
5:59
not only that they're actually pushing and sponsoring
6:03
these candidates that are their own members dsa
6:07
but yet they haven't gone to one state yet to
6:10
try to make themselves a political party in the
6:13
ballot instead they use the democrat party they
6:16
say oh i'm a democrat but i'm a democrat socialist
6:19
We all know where this is leading to, and this
6:21
is why we're so concerned about this at the church,
6:23
is that eventually they're going to get to religion.
6:26
If the socialist movement continues, your freedom
6:29
of religion is gone. And they monitor the church.
6:33
They start locking up pastors. It's happened
6:37
in every one of these countries. So we must fight
6:40
to understand what happens. When I say fight,
6:45
I mean through the voting. I certainly don't
6:48
mean anything that is violent. We have to stand
6:52
up for our rights. We have to stand up for our
6:55
beliefs. And I here as the pastor of the Church
6:59
for Life is standing up for the church and for
7:02
all of you. But here's the thing. The strategy
7:06
that he did. has been remarkably effective by
7:10
avoiding the legal hurdles of becoming a recognized
7:12
party in the state. DSA members have used Democratic
7:15
ballot line to elect socialists nationwide from
7:19
city councils to Congress. They promise one thing
7:21
and they turn it into something else. And the
7:23
other thing to that is plain and simple. The
7:26
DSA itself is a 501c3. It's not supposed to be.
7:30
If you're a political party, you cannot be a
7:33
non -profit. But they're getting away with it.
7:36
Because of certain wording they're doing, but
7:39
mostly now they're coming out a little bit more.
7:41
When they put that manifesto out, they really
7:44
kind of exposed themselves in a hope at some
7:47
point the IRS will look at that and say, whoa,
7:50
whoa, whoa, you're a political organization,
7:52
not a non -profit, and take that 501c3 away from
7:56
them. But here's the result that's going to hurt
8:00
our country here and now. A quiet but profound
8:04
transformation of the Democratic Party's identity.
8:07
Traditional Democrats, once defenders of free
8:10
markets and American exceptionalism, now find
8:13
themselves competing with radicals who view capitalism
8:18
as the enemy. And here's the thing, you know,
8:21
the problem with the Democrat Party, and I just
8:24
have to say it the way it is, remember, it was
8:26
the Democrats. that were in charge during slavery
8:29
during the confederacy of the ones that did the
8:31
secession and this party has manipulated itself
8:35
or been manipulated into all kinds of different
8:37
things and now it's going out on a limb the far
8:42
the other way once upon a time there was always
8:45
rhetoric by the way between parties whether you're
8:47
independent the democrat republican don't matter
8:50
what your party was but there's always been rhetoric
8:53
and discussions and oppositions in congress Senate,
8:57
things like that. But at the end of the day,
8:59
they would come to a compromise. They would be
9:02
able to talk it out and work something out. But
9:06
the movement that has gone right now, the rhetoric
9:09
that you hear, there is no working anything out.
9:11
They're hardliners. And they don't want to necessarily
9:15
do what's best for the United States, for our
9:19
republic. They want to change. They want to overthrow.
9:22
the government. They want to get rid of the Senate.
9:25
They want to get rid of the presidency. They
9:27
want to get rid of a lot of our rights and make
9:31
it a socialist, communist country. And I'm sorry,
9:34
but the church cannot remain silent. The church
9:38
has to speak up. You have to speak up. You speak
9:42
up by your voice to your member of Congress.
9:45
You speak up by your vote. And this is nothing,
9:49
this is not... a political message. This is a
9:51
fact. You're having to speak up for your religious
9:55
freedom, for your civil rights. If you don't,
9:59
you'll find them gone in the not too distant
10:02
future. But here we go. So let's talk about the
10:05
modern era, the technology, the AI, and the new
10:08
front. In recent years, Sanders has expanded
10:10
his socialist crusade into technology. All of
10:14
a sudden, in the last month or two, here in 2026,
10:18
He introduced legislation to ban super intelligent
10:20
AI and halt data center expansions until the
10:25
government could impose strict controls. Well,
10:27
that's part of the issue here. What does Bernie
10:31
Sanders know about AI? I'm sure he knows about
10:35
as much as the average person. But yet he's going
10:38
to do legislation that is going to totally change
10:42
the way things are. And we know that AI can definitely
10:45
have a profound... impact on our jobs economy
10:49
things like that but remember around the world
10:52
there's other nations working on it our biggest
10:55
one of course is china they're not going to stop
10:57
just because bernie sanders passes something
10:59
in our legislature that says we're going to stop
11:02
or slow down they're going to go on and they're
11:04
going to pass us and when they pass us it's going
11:07
to be hard to recover but i'm just going to say
11:09
this that you know in recent weeks there has
11:12
been some quote -unquote whistleblowers talking
11:15
about AI is going to end humanity and all the
11:19
people, all our lives in 10 years. You know what?
11:21
I heard the same rhetoric back in the late 90s
11:25
when Y2K was coming up. They said, oh, the year
11:27
2000, the computers are going to stop. Everything's
11:30
going to go haywire. We're all going to die.
11:31
I mean, there was all these conspiracy things.
11:35
And I said in another podcast that. Back at the
11:39
time, I was a law enforcement officer, and I
11:40
said, well, if something's going to happen, I'm
11:42
going to be in uniform and working, and I was.
11:44
I was at a New Year's Eve party working with
11:47
two other deputies. I was in uniform, had my
11:49
gun, and midnight came, and nothing happened.
11:53
Days later, nothing happened. The computer still
11:55
worked. We didn't lose anything. Our power grids
11:58
didn't go down. Humanity did not go over a cliff
12:02
like they were saying. If you go back, I know
12:06
a lot of people reference the Terminator movies,
12:09
but I'm going to reference another movie back
12:11
in 1979 called Computer Side, and I think they
12:13
renamed it, where you had this perfect city.
12:17
It was all computerized. Everything was great
12:19
until the computers didn't work right or they
12:21
were programmed for bad things. And you look
12:25
at Westworld or any of these things, there's
12:28
always going to be some kind of apocalypse. thing
12:35
going on. But the reality is, the reality here
12:39
is we have the power to stop anything. We can
12:45
pull a plug and the power's gone and the data
12:48
center's gone. But I think that, yes, I think
12:52
there's got to be some sensible legislation and
12:55
things like that, reasonable controls. But we
12:58
don't want to stop. what our possibility of growth
13:02
can be. Because technology has helped us grow.
13:04
Just like the American Industrial Revolution,
13:07
this is the AI revolution. And it's going to
13:10
help. It really is going to help us. And it's
13:13
not going to be some bad thing that's going to
13:16
take us down a cliff and, you know, point of
13:19
no return. But this is what Bernie Sanders is
13:23
doing now in 2026. And he framed it as protecting
13:27
workers and humanity. from itself. But critics
13:31
saw it as another attempt to centralize power
13:33
and restrict innovation. And that's exactly what.
13:36
And if he is not only a socialist, but a communist,
13:40
who knows to say he is not working with China
13:43
and he's doing all this stuff to disrupt our
13:45
country so that China could get ahead or another
13:48
adversary. I'm using China's example. I should
13:50
just use one. But this week, I think President
13:54
Trump was meeting with President Xi and hopefully
13:56
they worked some stuff out. But even when a country
14:00
says something, you can't necessarily believe
14:02
that it's going to be 100 % there. That's why
14:04
we have national security. That's why we have
14:06
the military. That's another thing that the Democrats,
14:09
Socialists in America want to do. They want to
14:11
get rid of the Department of War. They want to
14:13
get rid of the military. They want to open our
14:15
borders. They want to get rid of jails. I mean,
14:17
it's anarchy stuff. Well, we can't live in an
14:20
anarchy. It does not work. Period. But Sanders'
14:24
alliance with progressive activists and even
14:26
some populist conservatives on the issue shows
14:29
how far his influence reaches. He has become
14:32
the face of the movement. that disturbs private
14:35
enterprise, innovation, and individual autonomy,
14:38
preferring government oversight and collective
14:41
control. I mean, look, today we have these cameras
14:44
all over the United States. There's several different
14:46
brands of them. I'm not going to mention any
14:48
names, but a lot of companies that have them,
14:50
at least nine or ten, and cities, law enforcement
14:54
have got it, so they can track your movements.
14:56
It can take a... basically a fingerprint of your
15:00
car, for lack of better words. But these cameras
15:02
also have the technology for tracking your movement
15:05
by facial recognition. Go around New York. They
15:08
have facial recognition cameras everywhere. You
15:10
know, I'm not talking about conspiracy theory
15:12
or anything like that. I'm just talking about
15:14
government overreach without the permission of
15:17
the people. If we want to do it and we're okay
15:20
with it. then, hey, you know, that's fine. But
15:22
I think the people need to weigh in on this and
15:24
government did not have the right to just start
15:26
doing all these tracking our movements, whether
15:29
I go to the doctor, the hospital, Burger King,
15:32
it doesn't matter. They shouldn't be tracking
15:34
anybody unless there's a criminal reason to and
15:37
they have a warrant and they're tracking specific,
15:39
you know, tags and people and things like that.
15:43
Absolutely behind that 100%. So moving on and
15:46
or finishing up this particular part here. the
15:49
strategy we're going to talk about the legacy
15:52
bernie sanders is now 84 years old the longest
15:55
serving independent in the united states history
15:57
but his legacy is not of independence it is of
16:01
ideological infiltration through decades of persistence
16:05
sanders has embedded socialist principles into
16:08
the american political machine not by forming
16:10
a new party but by transforming an existing one
16:14
he has shown that revolutions don't always happen
16:17
in the streets. Sometimes they happen in committee
16:19
rooms, campaign platforms, and ballot access
16:22
laws. And this is the danger. Things are done
16:25
behind closed doors. Things are done in the open,
16:29
but hidden. People that are running for office
16:32
are not being honest with us, but only with a
16:35
certain segment of the population and in certain
16:37
areas that they know that they can manipulate
16:40
the population. Remember we talk about being
16:42
discerning. You have to use your morals and your
16:46
values to be discerning. I will never, nor will
16:50
the church ever tell you how to vote, who to
16:53
vote for. But if there's a danger out there,
16:56
we're going to tell you about it. You make the
16:58
decision for yourself. You decide how you're
17:02
going to work this through. And if you feel like
17:05
you need to stop it and stand up for your rights,
17:08
you will. If you decide, no, I'm okay with it,
17:11
then you won't. but that's going to be your choice
17:14
on your grounds. Today's Did You Know asks a
17:19
sobering question. When socialism enters through
17:23
the back door of democracy, or in this case,
17:26
our constitutional republic, how long before
17:31
freedom forgets to lock the front door? I'm Pastor
17:37
David. Thank you for listening today on behalf
17:40
of all of us at Voices of Life and the Church
17:42
for Life. We'll see you next time. You have been
17:45
listening to Voices of Life. Did you know? Thank
17:50
you for joining us for this important look at
17:52
the long march of American socialism and its
17:55
impact on the Democratic Party. We hope today's
17:59
episode has strengthened your understanding,
18:01
sharpened your discernment, and encouraged your
18:04
pursuit of a life of meaning. For more episodes,
18:07
teachings, and resources, stay connected with
18:11
Voices of Life and The Church for Life. Until
18:15
next time, may truth guide you and hope sustain
18:20
you.