“I am angry that the Democrats don't have the ability to explain to Republicans that we should be able to feed people in this country, and that it is not socialism.”
Lewis Black
Republican presidential wannabees, together with the GOP’s Congressional caucus and conservative media talking-heads, have been extremely successful in labeling Democrats and the Biden Administration as “radical socialists.”
When challenged, however, few “conservatives” or MAGA adherents echoing this mantra can accurately define socialism, let alone rationally explain how Democratic policies equate to such a description.
While there are several forms of Socialism, it can be broadly described as a philosophy advocating a wide range of often anti-democratic political, economic, and social systems, including collective-ownership and control of the means of production.
While a small handful of Democrats openly embrace a “socialist” label, the overwhelming majority of the party, its Congressional delegation and the president are firmly committed to democratic values, support of private enterprise and a competitive capitalist economy, and tenaciously defend constitutionally-guaranteed liberties, equal rights and universal tolerance for every member of our society, irrespective of race, religion, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.
They also support providing healthcare, public education, and social welfare for the truly needy; including such socially-funded programs as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and even local police, fire and emergency services.
Sounds a lot like the ideals articulated in the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights and subsequently-adopted Amendments … rather than any socialist or communist agenda.
Achieving such idealistic goals requires significant funding, a commodity increasingly hard to come by when our nation consistently runs unsustainable deficits … under both Democratic and Republican administrations … which cannot be eliminated by either Republican-proposed spending cuts or Democratic-favored tax increases alone.
As Congress weighs future governmental spending, they might drop their “socialist” rhetoric and reflect on Gandhi’s admonition, “the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.”
