As we’ve told you previously, The Reagan Battalion unearthed some decades-old videos of Bernie Sanders that are simply jaw-dropping in their praise for communists, Marxists and those forms of government. One such video featured Sanders and his wife Jane heaping praise on the Soviet Union’s system of government after they visited in 1988:
Video 2. After his 1988 trip to the Soviet Union, @BernieSanders praises their (communist) youth programs and his wife Jane praises their (communist) system of not separating personal life and work. pic.twitter.com/Le8c87gG7f
— The Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) February 20, 2019
People who were in the USSR around the same time are simply astounded, as Brit Hume noticed:
Note the comments from others who had visited the USSR. https://t.co/vCw2N5yZnJ
— Brit Hume (@brithume) February 23, 2019
What others remember certainly does not line up with what Sanders and his wife said after their trip to the Soviet Union:
Astounding! After a 1988 trip to the USSR, @BernieSanders & wife Jane praise the Soviet system. When I visited Moscow the same year, the decrepitude overwhelmed me. The Sanders are 20 years older than me. To a shocking degree, they are blinded by ideology. pic.twitter.com/7KmHz4D8hf
— Mike (@Doranimated) February 23, 2019
And it went from there:
I went to Leningrad in ‘87 during a bus trip from Finland. The city was decrepit, food markets were empty, and the countryside was shockingly poor.
Bernie is an unreformed 1960s leftist ideologue.
— Rubric Marlin (@RubricMarlin) February 23, 2019
The decrepitude was obvious in 1972 when I went there as a student.
— Barbara Slavin (@barbaraslavin1) February 23, 2019
I was in Moscow at the same time, working with high level soviet officials to accelerate perestroika. They told me about this and were laughing at him, and had utter contempt for him and others of his kind.
— sharkeysvideo (@sharkeysvideo) February 23, 2019
I spent some time in Moscow in 1988. What they say about culture and public transport is not wrong, but it was vastly outweighted by the material misery, lack of freedom of expression, and oppression in general
— TorstenAkesson ?? (@TorstenAkesson) February 23, 2019
I was there in 1987, the Metro was beautiful but decrepit. I was struck by the gap between super power prestige & day to day reality of empty shops & food queues. That young people were like young people everywhere but not free to travel the world. Shocked by the US $ KGB stores
— Andrew Wood (@Andrewwood17) February 23, 2019
I was posted at Moscow Embassy in 1988. You had to stand in line on the street to get a green banana. pic.twitter.com/O9iO92xHfz
— Paul Hurst (@pnhurst) February 23, 2019
I knew friends who grew up there and described tiny horrid apartments and that basic fruits were scarce: I guess Sanders saw the part about the politically powerful living well; culture for some, poverty for most
— Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) February 23, 2019
I was there in 1988 with HS students. Shoddy, shabby, poor food even in hotels. Hardest impact was on the hard core kid raised to be socialist who really expected to find worker’s paradise. Devastated. Came home a former socialist
— mpav Fierce Terrier (@mpav) February 23, 2019
These people are crazy! Moscow, St. Petersburg and such cities are not Russia. Get outside of the large cities and you see people depending on the potato harvest every year for their food supply. Unless the rules have changed, kids walking around smoking. Sad. Really sad.
— Charles Lenn (@charleslenn) February 23, 2019
Reminds me of the PJ O’Rourke article about his tour of the USSR in the late 80’s with a bunch of “The Nation” subscribers:
“These were people who believed everything about the Soviet Union was perfect, but they were bringing their own toilet paper.”— David Rainey ?? (@davidjrainey) February 23, 2019
Maybe Sanders would like to have a town hall meeting with people who were also in the USSR around that same time so they could compare notes.
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