Round 4 — Socialism

Well folks, this is an election year.  This guarantees we will disagree on many things but please heed this bit of advice – wear boots!  The Republican Party likes to claim that they are “originalist” and that they know the intentions that the Founding Fathers had when they penned the US Constitution. This is frequently their justification for doing EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE from what the documents actually say.  They like to try to scare us into believing that the country is on the verge of destruction and that we are straying from the Founders’ intentions but lets really look at some of these claims.

Bernie Sanders was castigated for merely uttering the words “democratic socialist” and most of the people criticizing that statement don’t even know what the words mean.  Following WWII, America’s new enemy was “Communism” but there has never really been a true communist nation (as defined by Karl Marx).  We fought a Cold War against the authoritarian USSR and we are often embroiled in disputes with Communist China but these are not really communist or socialist nations, they are oligarchies where an elite rule over the masses in much the same was as feudal lords ruled peasants in the Middle Ages.  The closest approximations we see to communism are really the “democratic socialist” nations of France and Israel where free elections are held (hence “democratic”) and government entitlements and “safety net” programs ensure that social ills are addressed (hence “socialism”). 

The GOP’s only credible argument against socialism is budgetary as expressed by Mitt Romney in 2012 — “All right, there are 47 percent who are…dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.”  The GOP likes to think that killing programs on social spending (35% of expenditures) will reduce federal debts. 

So, what would the Founding Fathers say?  John Adams felt that “Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people.” The common good usually includes making sure that men, women, and children have enough to eat. Thomas Jefferson wrote “The first duty of government is the protection of life, not its destruction.  Abandon that, and you have abandoned all.”  And if you will grant me the dispensation to quote Lincoln (the claimed founder of the GOP), “The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or can not so well do, for themselves – in their separate, and individual capacities.”  I’m pretty sure this is exactly what Mr. Sanders was intending when he said “democratic socialism.”

---

Want to have the
Regimental Brewmeister
at your site or event?

You can hire me.

https://colonialbrewer.com/yes-you-can-hire-me-for-your-event-or-site/