Well, it is time for me to beat the drum of anti-socialism once again. You may think this is an obsession, but the American Constitution is important to me; I and millions of others have taken an oath, one that never expires, to support and defend it, and it cannot survive in a socialist government.
Our friends in the mass media will lead us to believe the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are a powerful force to be reckoned with; after all, we have Senator Sanders and soon to be Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a growing number of government officials who are socialists.
Ok, let’s look at the folks who are “Democratic Socialists.” The party (a corporation by the way) platform is so general as to be nonexistent. A summary of it reads profit bad, businesses bad, wealth bad, government (other than theirs) bad, human nature bad, Israel bad, labor for the joy of labor good, labor for pay bad, equal outcome for all good, regardless of effort. Now that is an over simplification, but the DSA platforms go on forever with a lot of lofty goals and no details.
The DSA website calls for all members to support and work within the Democratic National Committee (DNC); the goal is assuming control of the DNC and using its funds and organization to redesign our political and economic system.
The Democratic Socialists embrace religion (unlike true doctrinal socialists) and government, but not nationalism; how that works is anyone’s guess.
So, now let’s look at the numbers of this national wave sweeping our nation. The DSA has arguably (probably less) 46,000 members in 181 chapters, a membership of .001% of the nation, hardly a ripple, let alone a wave.
More folks identify themselves as Wiccans (witches) than there are card-carrying socialists. The question begs to be answered: why do our friends in the media use terms like sweeping the nation, growing by leaps and bounds? Becoming a national political force? It is because the left loves the concept, hoping it will help the Democrats, and the right will use the fear of socialism as an issue.
A strange stand for the Democratic Socialists to take is that they are not Fascists, as they don’t tolerate religion but do support nationalism and religion as a DSA/DNC policy; how that works is again anyone’s guess. Socialism that allows religion and nationalism is the very definition of Fascism as designed by Benito Mussolini.
The DSA platform reads “At the root of our socialism is a profound commitment to democracy, as means and end. As we are unlikely to see an immediate end to capitalism tomorrow, DSA fights for reforms today that will weaken the power of corporations and increase the power of working people. “For example, we support reforms that:
· decrease the influence of money in politics
· empower ordinary people in workplaces and the economy
· restructure gender and cultural relationships to be more equitable.
We are activists committed to democracy as not simply one of our political values but our means of restructuring society. Our vision is of a society in which people have a real voice in the choices and relationships that affect the entirety of our lives.” Nice words that are so vague as to mean nothing; the Republican platform and the Democratic platform have similar concepts. Long on slogans and short on the how to achieve and who pays for the generic goals.
The election of President Donald Trump has caused some folks on the left to call for armed revolution; a study of the history of revolutions tells us that all it takes is 5% of a nation to stage a serious revolt. The DSA, with .001%, has a long way to go. The call for the takeover of the Democratic National Committee and using it to install a socialist government would be the most direct path to a socialist democracy and the elimination of our constitutional democracy.
To the folks on the left, please beware of what you wish for, as you may get it. Never forget that the greatest slaughters in history have been in Democratic Socialist nations, and socialism always fails over time, but only after disastrous social unrest — just look to Venezuela.
Army Bob, it appears either you’re having WWI flashbacks or you’re simply spreading fake news. The Rooskies are not inflitrating our government–at least not through the progressive branch, anyway! It would be nice for your readers if you would’ve provided a link to the DSA party platform that you’ve so eloquently paraphrased. (I did my own search, and the DSA platform I found online was written in 1982 and last updated in 1995–not sure how relevant that might be for 2018.) While I wouldn’t (or would?) attempt to speak for everyone under liberalism’s big tent, I am fairly certain that less than 0.001% of these folks want to turn our country into the next Venezuela, despite your strawman construction. Progressives want our tax dollars to be spent on the things that directly benefit everyone: education, healthcare, infrastructure, environmental protection, etc. Army Bob, you claim that progressives are nothing but empty rhetoric–“long on slogans and short on the how to achieve and who pays for the generic goals,” you write–but our current progressive candidate for governor, Abdul El-Sayed, has the most thought-out, in-depth plans of any gubernatorial candidate by a long shot:
https://abdulformichigan.com/issues
Progressives are thoughtful people with good intentions. And in case you may not remember, our state (which comprises more democrat voters than republican) put its nomination behind Bernie–not Hillary–in the 2016 primary. Progressivism is gaining momentum, and crafting strawmen in place of addressing the issues will not slow it.
Bernie ran as a Democrat.
You have demonstrated that you have very little understanding of the subject matter you have chosen to write about. Expressing a willfully ill-informed opinion certainly is your right as a citizen, but it does nothing to preserve/advance the journalistic integrity that lies at the heart of a functioning democracy. We would all be better served by you holding yourself to a little standard.