The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) deserve the criticism they receive from Democrats and Republicans. Any American candidate for public office who promotes communism, recommends defunding the Department of Defense, supports the government takeover of private property, and indiscriminately condemns Israel while unreservedly supporting Hamas should be verbally pilloried.
That’s why some moderate Democratic Socialists condemn those statements while promoting policies that have helped working class Americans. Those Americans have admitted and learned from their mistakes much like we teach our kids and pets to do. Why can’t we teach Republicans to do the same?
But calling yourself a socialist in American politics is stupid. The ambiguous term is an invitation to venomous attack. When you repeatedly spend valuable time defending that label, you lose opportunities to score your chosen political points. Historically, though, this discussion started in 1776.
Thomas Jefferson, author of our Declaration of Independence, and James Madison, author of our Constitution, believed in state’s rights and capitalism as they created a strong federal government to serve the needs of its people. But they understood that citizens, private enterprises and states could not separately succeed without the direct participation of a central government. The question was one of degrees, however. How much government participation and control were necessary to guarantee opportunity for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
The views of their political opponent, Alexander Hamilton, ultimately won the day. He insisted on more government intervention, including a national bank that could intervene in the new nation’s economy as needed. Congress, and Madison, as president, ultimately agreed. It was capitalism with a sprinkling of socialism.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a progressive Democrat, aggressively used that government model to save America from 12 years of the failed GOP unregulated capitalism that led to the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s New Deal of 1933-1938 was a series of economic, social, and political reforms enacted as a massive government intervention to stabilize and reorganize the American economy. He provided relief for the unemployed and poor, returned the economy to near pre-depression levels, and reformed the financial system to prevent another depression. It helped millions of Americans who were ignored and marginalized under the uncontrolled greed and narcissism of the Great Gatsby super-rich that Trump mimics.
Our capitalism with now a strong dose of socialism pays for socialized benefits and services such as Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, municipal water companies, public infrastructure, fire protection services, public transportation, law enforcement agencies, local parks, public schools, postal service, highways and byways, and the military. We are a better country for it. And whiney Trumpers clearly accept those benefits.
It’s the Trump administration that Trumpers should condemn. It has spent $26.7 billion in taxpayer money to forcefully acquire government ownership interests in 30 companies. Some of those companies are Nvidia, Nippon/U.S. Steel, Intel, Lithium Americas, Westinghouse, Vulcan Elements, Korea Zinc, USA Rare Earth, and Strategic Bauxite USA. The Republican Congress is passing new legislation to allow Trump to continue strong arming the governmental takeover of ownership interests in other private companies. And insider information ahead of some of those acquisitions have resulted in documented stock buys and personal profits for Trump and his cronies.
Republicans criticize a few Democrats for calling themselves socialists while their party votes for and races towards socialism for insider profit. Orwellian Doublethink or sadly ignorant? Both? You choose, comrade.
— Chuck Wieland,
Madera