Promises, promises

Reporting from Iowa City, Paul Street writes,

“Listen,” Hillary Clinton told a stunned collection of reporters yesterday in Des Moines, Iowa. “…We’re Marxist-Lenninists, and we always have been. Deal with it.”

Eschewing the “limited goal” of “socialism in one country,” Obama proclaimed his determination to link the “new American revolution” with “revolutionary proletarian forces and cadres around the planet” to “overthrow the world capitalist system within the next 20 years.”

“I’m a realist,” Obama said. “Let’s get real about solving poverty, inequality, and environmental collapse and putting meaning back into democracy at home and abroad. Let’s admit a basic truth: none of these problems are going to be fixed – none of these things are going to happen under capitalism.”

Edwards quoted Marx and Engels with approval: “You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property. But in your existing society, private property is already abolished for nine-tenths of the population; its existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths.”

“And that’s exactly what we see in the United States today. Enough is enough,” Edwards said. “America needs a president who will tell the truth and show a little backbone. It’s time to expropriate the expropriators!”

Those guys will say just about anything for a few votes.