Red America
Do your friends look at you as if you're an anachronistic, red-baiting fruitcake when you use the word socialist to describe recent trends in American governance? Well, let me assure you, you're not nuts. They are.
Thanks to Ricochet member Okan Altiparmak and Gateway Pundit, here's a list of 70 members of Congress who are fully paid-up members of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Shall we have a little look at the highlights of the platform of the DSA, folks? Just so we can all be clear what we're talking about? The emphases are mine.
Vision of a Socialist Economy
Regulated markets can guarantee efficiency, consumer choice and labor mobility. However, democratic socialists recognize that market mechanisms do generate inequalities of wealth and income. But, the social ownership characteristic of a socialist society will greatly limit inequality. In fact, widespread worker and public ownership will greatly lessen the corrosive effect of capitalists markets on people's lives. Social need will outrank narrow profitability as the measure of success for our economic life.
Section 4: A Strategy for the Next Left
Socialists have historically supported public ownership and control of the major economic institutions of society -- the large corporations -- in order to eliminate the injustice and inequality of a class-based society, and have depended on the the organization of a working class party to gain state power to achieve such ends. In the United States, socialists joined with others on the Left to build a broad-based, anti-corporate coalition, with the unions at the center, to address the needs of the majority by opposing the excesses of private enterprise. Many socialists have seen the Democratic Party, since at least the New Deal, as the key political arena in which to consolidate this coalition, because the Democratic Party held the allegiance of our natural allies. Through control of the government by the Democratic Party coalition, led by anti-corporate forces, a progressive program regulating the corporations, redistributing income, fostering economic growth and expanding social programs could be realized.
With the end of the post-World War II economic boom and the rise of global economic competitors in East Asia and Europe in the 1970s came the demise of the brief majoritarian moment of this progressive coalition that promised--but did not deliver--economic and social justice for all. A vicious corporate assault on the trade union movement and a right-wing racist, populist appeal to downwardly mobile, disgruntled white blue-collar workers contributed to the disintegration of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party in the 1970s and 1980s.
Today, the mildly redistributive welfare state liberalism of the 1960s, which accepted the corporate dominance of economic decision-making, can no longer be the programmatic basis for a majoritarian progressive politics. New Deal and Great Society liberalism depended upon redistribution at the margins of an ever-expanding economic pie. But today corporations no longer aspire to expand production and consumption by raising global living standards; rather, global capital engages in a race to increase profits by "downsizing" and lowering wages.
...
If socialism cannot be achieved primarily from above, through a democratic government that owns, control and regulates the major corporations, then it must emerge from below, through a democratic transformation of the institutions of civil society, particularly those in the economic sphere -- in other words, a program for economic democracy.
As inequalities of wealth and income increase and the wages and living standards of most are either stagnant or falling, social needs expand. Only a revitalized public sector can universally and democratically meet those needs.
...
Economic Democracy . Economic democracy can empower wage and income earners through building cooperative and public institutions that own and control local economic resources. Economic democracy means, in the most general terms, the direct ownership and/or control of much of the economic resources of society by the great majority of wage and income earners. Such a transformation of worklife directly embodies and presages the practices and principles of a socialist society.
...
Social Redistribution. Social redistribution--the shift of wealth and resources from the rich to the rest of society--will require:
- massive redistribution of income from corporations and the wealthy to wage earners and the poor and the public sector, in order to provide the main source of new funds for social programs,income maintenance and infrastructure rehabilitation, and
- a massive shift of public resources from the military (the main user of existing discretionary funds) to civilian uses.
...
Electoral tactics are only a means for democratic socialists; the building of a powerful anti-corporate coalition is the end.
Are you paying attention, folks? Is that clear enough for you? I would usually use a well-known emphatic gerund before the word "clear," but Ricochet's code of conduct forbids it, so just use your imagination.
You may wish to read the whole thing. While you're at it, savor the spring issue of The Red Letter. I kid you not about the name. Don't forget to check out their perspective on foreign policy.
The DSA's platform is not a call to expand the social-safety net so better to protect the most vulnerable and infirm members of society; it is not a call to improve access to health care; it is a call for socialism--the echt item, the discredited ideology that immiserated and enslaved and murdered hundreds of millions of human souls in the past century. The numbers of DSA members in our Congress are not trivial. Every single one of them must go in the next election.
DSA members of the judiciary committee include John Conyers [Chairman!], Tammy Baldwin, Jerrold Nadler, Luis Gutierrez, Melvin Watt, Maxine Waters, Hank Johnson, Steve Cohen, Barbara Lee, Robert Wexler, Linda Sanchez. That's to say, half the members of the committee are authentic, honest-to-God Reds.
And now a word from out sponsor. There is No Alternative is now available in paperback. If you know anyone who doesn't quite see why the number of socialists in our Congress is a very serious problem, perhaps you'd like to purchase a copy for them, and a few for their friends as well. You may wish to direct them in particular to Chapter 3, "'I Hate Communists,'" and Chapter 5, "The Sledgehammer." If they still have any questions after that, send them to me; I'll set them straight.
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Comments :
Jun '10
Re: Red America
Obama supports the GZM mosque, La Raza advocates for a totalitarian state, and now 70 members of Congress are revealed as card-carrying socialists. We are staring into the face of a socialist putsch. There can be no doubt about it now. The absurdity is that these people think they can enforce their will on 300 million Americans. Not. Going. To. Happen. I will stand by my prediction that the country will see serious civil disorder on a scale not seen since 1968 before the situation is resolved.
James, what do you think now about Obama's willingness to move to the middle in pursuit of a second term?
May '10
Re: Red America
Odd, really, because I saw a recent poll showing a majority (not a wimpy plurality, mind) agreeing with the statement that Obama is a socialist. Of course, your Beltway types will say that's ridiculous. Also that we should be ashamed of ourselves for not liking the idea of a mosque at Ground Zero.
And what about my social needs? I got social needs too, y'know. Do they care? Sorry, I'm, ahem "tired and emotional" what with this bigoted, anti-Muslim hangover.
Jul '10
Re: Red America
Being a teacher and living in the Soviet Republic of Western Washington, I am unquestionably an anachronism.
Aug '10
Re: Red America
I knew we were in big trouble in the '60;'s when John Lennon sang, "...You don't know how lucky you are, boys... back in the USSR.!" Anybody with a brain had to know even then, especially after Solzhenitsyn's books were released, that collectivism - and the laundry list of its heroes, like Che - was a massive and deadly fraud. It's unforgivable now that any adult would think it's 'cool'.
The purpose of this is to force us to make a final moral choice. Our antagonists are morally defective freaks.
The attraction to collectivism runs deep in the human psyche, as deep as the impulse to suck on a nipple. Thankfully, a large number of our fellow citizens outgrow the need to suck others dry by theft of their resources. But now it seems we are more and more outnumbered.
The Dark Ages had horrific plagues that affected the body; we have malignant viruses of the mind that affect our judgment and kill the soul.
Jul '10
Re: Red America
Meanwhile, between their pay, pensions, perks; their bloated staffs who cater to every whim; the many ways in which rent-seekers bow and scrape and curry favor, these "public servants" live as well as centi-millionaires.
All pigs are equal. But some pigs are more equal than others.
Aug '10
Re: Red America
Kenneth: Meanwhile, between their pay, pensions, perks; their bloated staffs who cater to every whim; the many ways in which rent-seekers bow and scrape and curry favor, these "public servants" live as well as centi-millionaires.
All pigs are equal. But some pigs are more equal than others. · Aug 14 at 7:28am
Indeed. What would the USSR have been without its nomenklatura?
Jun '10
Re: Red America
"Communism is the opiate of the intellectuals with no cure except as a guillotine might be called a cure for dandruff". --Clare Boothe Luce, Newsweek 1/24/1955
Jul '10
Re: Red America
Let's see...
The Left has Rosa DeLauro.
The Right has Claire Berlinski.
Which side are you on? Which side are you on?
May '10
Re: Red America
All very interesting, Claire, but the truth has no place in politics. To point this kind of stuff out merely indicates that you are so short of constructive policy ideas that you must resort to a McCarthy-styled witch hunt. And to write such things about Conyers and Waters also shows a latent racism lurking below the surface of your writings. *Sigh*
You know the drill. Pointing out the obvious will only be used against you.
Aug '10
Re: Red America
Claire, you sound as if you think there is something wrong with being an anachronistic, red-baiting fruitcake. As Barry Goldwater said, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." He also said, "Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have."
Unfortunately, though, Barry Goldwater, a man of incomparably greater stature than any of the intellectual and moral midgets who now dominate Republican politics, if he were still alive and politically active, would today be derided by these people as a crypto-socialist and - horror! - compromiser, and would probably lose his primary race to some wingnut like J.D. Heyworth. After all, the Goldwater family was closely intertwined with the Udall family (Arizona's Democratic aristocracy), and Barry Goldwater and Mo Udall were close friends. You just can't do that sort of thing nowadays. Goldwater, I'm sure, would be shocked by the misplaced and incoherent extremism of so many of today's Republicans.
Re: Red America
Thatcher won, didn't she?
May '10
Re: Red America
Did she? After John Major how long were the Tories in the wilderness? And is David Cameron really a Thatcherite?
1994 was the culmination of the Reagan Revolution and the high-spending co-opted Republicans and George W. Bush flushed it all down the toilet.
To really win, you have to make long term structural changes that fortify your ideology. That's why ObamaCare was so critical to the Democrats. If the GOP can't repeal or totally defunded it before it totally takes over ala the NHS, it is the permanent game changer.
Jun '10
Re: Red America
EXCERPT: "NEA recommends the following Saul Alinsky books to those members of our Association who are involved in grassroots organizing, especially Association Representatives (ARs) — also known as building reps or shop stewards — and leaders at local affiliates. Saul Alinsky is widely recognized as the father of, and pre-imminent expert in, grassroots organizing, which is why we recommend that ARs and local leaders become familiar with his theories & materials."
http://www.nea.org/tools/17231.htm
Re: Red America
EJHill
Did she? After John Major how long were the Tories in the wilderness? And is David Cameron really a Thatcherite?
"We're all Thatcherites now."
Jun '10
Re: Red America
I think Paul sang lead on that one.
Aug '10
Re: Red America
Right you are, Joseph.
Jun '10
Re: Red America
I think it is radically "Emphatic Gerund"ingly clear - Claire.
Aug '10
Re: Red America
River, your comment contains an important clue as to the etiology of the disease of socialism: the lack of adequate parenting. This can afflict both the inner city, less-than-single-parent child and the ineptly parented, suburbanite spoiling. Both children, of course, are hungry for real love. One has love supplanted with neglect, abuse and material poverty (the least harmful of the three). The other has love supplanted by neglect, distracted parenting, and a surfeit of consumer junk. Both make for fertile ground for collectivist propagandizers in the government schools and just about any college--not to mention the propagandizers that ooze in the Medium (the Media has long ago consolidated into a singular thaaang). Deprived of the real security created by a two parent family with a S.A.H. mom, these kids will glom onto whatever object/nipplesque ideology first appears in mommy's absence, like Konrad Lorenz' newly hatched ducklings following a vacuum sweep or...Konrad Lorenz. "Mommy, what a big sickle and hammer you have!"