Why Is Socialism Becoming Less Scary?

TPM Article Topics
#21

The question is NOT if something is “Socialist” but rather if something is “Capitalist”.

That is there seems to by a false belief that “Capitalism” and “Socialism” are mutually exclusive in that anything that exists is Socialism is “Socialist” and therefore anti-Capitalist to include one of the most important requirements of Capitalism, public schools. That is if you ever read the definition of Capitalism as defined by Adam Smith in his book from 1776 called “Wealth of Nations”, you know that you cannot have Capitalism without public schools and public schools also exist in Socialism. Where public schools do not exist is Feudalism which is really what many support when they say they are supporting Capitalism.

Real Socialism, which no serious major American supports including Bernie Sanders has a one sentence definition: Government owns the means of production.

Capitalism on the other hand is defined by a book, number of pages depend on the font but with an average font is about 300 pages long and details among other things the Governments management of a private ownership system.

So well I do not necessarily disagree that “Medicare and Social Security are variations on a socialist theme,” this does not make them not or anti-Capitalist.

1 Like
#22

Republicans were against the GI Bill with benefits to help GI’s go to college. Presidents of major universities were against GI’s attending their schools. They had to admit that they were highly motivated to attend college and were good students. Anything that helps the average American is rejected by these elites. Only the wealthy deserve anything from the government.

OT. Orange Julius Caesar signed an executive order taking away civil service rights from federal employees. He must be king, he signs orders and dismantles the government. Mitch McConnell refuses to bring House bills to the floor. House Democrats are the only portion of Congress that is trying to function and are stymied by all these deplorable.

8 Likes
#23

Trump says Biden wants to kill Social Security and Medicare? OK who was it that wants to kill the payroll tax that funds these two programs??? Yeah you donald.(points finger). It was donnie’s way to get money into the pockets of folks he thought would then vote for him. A straight up bribe.

2 Likes
#24

What’re you gonna do, vote for the fascists? Heh.

It’s not like we have any person of significance at the national level who’s a socialist anyways. People like Bernie and AOC are social democrats, their policies are highly popular center-left positions that, for the most part, have already been successfully implemented in modern nations around the globe. Heck, stuff like universal healthcare and low-cost tertiary education are in many places considered such obvious responsibilities of the government that even the neo-Nazi parties don’t campaign against them. Nobody in these parts is talking about seizing the means of production.

6 Likes
#25

Sanders wasn’t rejected, he just didn’t get the nomination. If he was rejected, Biden wouldn’t be laying out a healthcare plan that includes a public option.

Like it or not, everyone who went against Sanders had to adopt his positions to some degree.

4 Likes
#26

I haven’t and never will vote for a Republican but Jammal Bowman ousted Eliot Engel in my district calls himself a democratic socialist and bragged of support by Bernie and Ms. Ocasio. I’ll leave it blank. Not that he will need my vote to win.

#27

The ACA has a public option. Sanders et. al. give themselves too much credit.

#28

It was tossed about but it was not in the final bill.

Regardless, it sounds like there is some personal issue you have with Sanders et. al. Not my concern.

2 Likes
#29

Just politics, never personal.

#30

Quite possibly so but the word also had a darker meaning for the Nazi’s. Hermann Rauschning reported Hitler clarifying the distinction between Communism and Nazism thus:

…The people about us are unaware of what is really happening to them. They gaze fascinated at one or two familiar superficialities, such as possessions and income and rank and other outworn conceptions. As long as these are kept intact, they are quite satisfied. But in the meantime they have entered a new relation; a powerful social force has caught them up. They themselves are changed. What are ownership and income to that? Why need we trouble to socialize banks and factories? We socialize human beings!
1 Like
#31

Really?

#32

It’s funny to listen to the GOP decry the evils of socialism then pat themselves on the back for their undying support of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, VA and police and fire departments.

8 Likes
#33

No it doesn’t.

8 Likes
#34

Can’t a citizen opt for it if they don’t have private insurance?

#35

You can’t opt for something that doesn’t exist.

2 Likes
#36

Biden care?

#37

I had a great uncle who was a communist (ny tailors union) and my great grandparents moved to a socialist utopia in Florida, where my grandmother was born.

But, Stalin, Castro, Mao, Kim jong un and his socialist paradise, have destroyed the brand.

If they want to call themselves ‘social democrats, like in Sweden” great, but they just created big issues for progressive change in mistakenly believing that they can sell socialism to America. No way, no how.

Btb, and let’s se how it sells. Curious how Kira Eastman does in Ne-2. She is only progressive, but is (having badly underperformed in 2018, handing a winnable west to Dan bacon) a good test case again for running to the far left in an educated and relatively educated district that is not my home city (SF) or Seattle/Portland/brooklyn.

1 Like
#38

Biden said he wants to add a public option to the ACA, which he can do if we keep the House, win or tie the Senate, and abolish the legislative filibuster.

4 Likes
#39

Not correct. Obama needed 60 votes, and senator Johnson (d-SD) would not support your public option, and he was the 60th vote. So it was taken out.

It is the major flaw in Obama care imho.

Long overdue to be fixed.

5 Likes
#40

If Trump is gone some Republicans may join. The start of their baby steps back to reality.

3 Likes
Comments are now Members-Only
Join the discussion Free options available