The False Promise of ‘Democratic’ Socialism
In 2018, two self-declared “democratic socialists” running as Democrats won election to the U.S. House.
Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) made headlines for their wins, and attracted thousands of social media followers, especially, but not exclusively, gullible younger people susceptible to the siren song of a “benevolent” version of socialism.
According to the Democratic Socialists of America organization, 2018 witnessed “the rebirth of the American socialist movement after generations in retreat.”
While ignoring socialist hellholes like Venezuela, democratic socialists here advocate remaking America into a larger version of Sweden’s “socialist utopia.”
But, Sweden is not a socialist nation. Sweden is a capitalist nation that, before an influx of unassimilated migrants, could only afford generous social benefits by embracing capitalist policies that America’s democratic socialists reject: a free economy, private property rights, deregulation, privatization of failed state enterprises, open education markets, including school vouchers, and, more recently, welfare reform.
Everyone in Sweden’s representative democracy, including the poor and middle class, pays huge tax rates to fund social programs; everybody, including needy Swedes, pays a highly-regressive 25 percent value-added consumption tax, a bit lower on certain necessities; but, favoring wealthy landowners, Sweden doesn’t tax property.
Ask them: If democratic socialists you know support these demands…
- “We demand an end to the power of the financial interests…
- “We demand profit sharing in big business…
- “We ask that the government [provide] citizens with…opportunity for employment and earning a living…
- “We demand…education at government expense…
- “…[G]overnment must undertake the improvement of public health…”
…Tell them those words appear in a 1920 political manifesto of Germany’s National Socialist Workers Party, a/k/a, Nazis. Nazi/fascist leaders all spouted socialist catchphrases. Opposite sides of the same socialist coin, Nazis/fascists were “state-control” socialists, while communists (theoretically, at least) impose “collective” socialism. German communists and fascists fought internally over which brand of socialism would prevail there – and the power that accrued to the winners, of course. Both European variants forcibly exported their socialist ideologies.
Paradoxically, the Democratic Socialists of America group advocates abolishing capitalism in favor of an economy run by “the workers” OR the state. Got that? “Either/or.” Collectivists, statists – pick your poison. Both crave power and control.
“Democratic socialism” is oxymoronic, because the “democratic” part never survives. Socialist despots in 20th Century Germany, Russia, China, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Central/South America and today’s Venezuela promised socialist paradises. Instead, their common denominator was/is coercive totalitarianism. Cumulatively, socialism’s body counts far exceed 100 million souls.
Years ago, Winston Churchill described socialism as “…a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
Today, more results are in, so, with all due respect to Sir Winston, it’s clear that socialism isn’t a philosophy at all. It’s a kleptocracy in which those in charge live extraordinarily well. Only general populations are made miserable.
Always autocratic, socialism’s “democratic” rehabilitation is the same scam – the same tyranny – the world has witnessed everywhere socialism has been attempted.
Don’t fall for it.
https://www.ldnews.com/story/opinion/2019/02/18/false-promises-democratic-socialism/2903679002/
