The hit comedy “Last Man Standing” on Fox has long been known for its refusal to hew the liberal Hollywood line. On Thursday, character ...
The hit comedy “Last Man Standing” on Fox has long been known for its refusal to hew the liberal Hollywood line.
On Thursday, character Mike Baxter, played by actor Tim Allen, delivered a conservative-themed discourse on the subject of capitalism and threw a rhetorical elbow at two of its biggest detractors — Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Both of the Democratic presidential contenders have campaigned heavily on what they consider the evils of American capitalism.
“Hey, Mike Baxter for Outdoor Man to talk about one of my favorite passions. No, no, no, not gutting a deer while listening to the Lovin’ Spoonful. I’m talking about capitalism,” Baxter’s pitch began in the clip, as reported by Newsbusters.
“Now, old Bernie and young Elizabeth tell the folks capitalists are coldhearted, money-grubbing vultures. When you put it that way, you make it sound like a bad thing. But we’re also human beings with a conscience. Conscience. You remember those?” he said.
The video is available here. (Note: Vulgarity in Twitter text.)
America ! Yo!
Mike Baxter from the show Last Man Standing has some wisdom to spread regarding Capitalism. This show shits all over the dems. Love it! Such a funny PG sitcom.
23 people are talking about this
Baxter notes that capitalism needs to be seasoned with a thought for the workers as well as profits.
“I mean, sure, paying your workers with baseball cards and bubble gum would increase profits, but it’s wrong! Listen, a good boss should know how to make a buck and still be a human being. You see, capitalism, it’s just a recipe for economic success, and it doesn’t taste quite right until you sprinkle in a little morality,” he said.
“That’s why, here at Outdoor Man, we provide benefits for our part-timers, paid medical leave and all-you-can-eat chili at the Annual Meat Summit. Which sadly leads to a lot of paid medical leave. Happy employees make good employees, and that’s good business. Baxter out,” he said.
Warren has proposed what she called an “accountable capitalism plan.”
Her plan calls for “very large American corporations to obtain a federal charter as a ‘United States corporation,’ which obligates company directors to consider the interests of all corporate stakeholders, not just shareholders.”
The plan “[e]mpowers workers at big American corporations to elect no less than 40% of the company’s board members.” She says it borrows from an approach used in Germany.
Sanders has used the term “democratic socialism” to define his campaign.
At Wednesday’s Democratic debate in Las Vegas, he said, “We are living, in many ways, in a socialist society right now. Problem is, as Dr. Martin Luther King reminded us, we have socialism for the very rich, rugged individualism for the poor,” according to Axios.
“We have to talk about democratic socialism as an alternative to unfettered capitalism, where the rich get richer and almost everybody else is getting poorer. I think that’s a message that young people are receptive to, and I think it’s a message that working people are receptive to,” Sanders said in a 2019 interview with The Nation.
President Donald Trump, in a September speech to the United Nations, attacked socialism.
“One of the most serious challenges our countries face is the specter of socialism. It’s the wrecker of nations and destroyer of societies. Events in Venezuela remind us all that socialism and communism are not about justice, they are not about equality, they are not about lifting up the poor, and they are certainly not about the good of the nation. Socialism and communism are about one thing only: power for the ruling class,” he said.
“Today, I repeat a message for the world that I have delivered at home: America will never be a socialist country,” Trump said then.