( – promoted by buhdydharma )
According to some measures Socialist Germany is the most successful country on the planet right now.
According to some studies, the “happiest” countries in the world are the ones with the least income inequality.
The American Government and American Society are “not in the business” of being successful or making people happy, it is in the business of creating and preserving an Upper Class, a Ruling Class. Europe’s monarchies led to Socialism. America’s Capitalist Democracy is leading to Monarchism….and Aristocracy.
Perhaps we cannot reject Monarchism, as Europe has done, until we fully create it?
Let’s face it and admit it and make it an open goal. Instead of being defensive and trying to “counter the charges.”
Democratic Socialism is proving to be the best, and by best I mean fairest, form of government on the Planet.
We want America to be, lol, like Germany.
The Lol comes from the fact that America won the War….and Germany has won the Peace. And at least in part they won the Peace by having their former form of government destroyed in the war, then the Clod War, and then, after the destruction….starting somewhat, from scratch.
Now I am FAR from being an expert on German Socialism…and I am sure that Lefties in Germany are FAR from happy with their system. But…apparently you can still get rich in Germany. Which is one objection to Socialism, that it levels the playing field too much and doesn’t let “entrepreneurs” rise to the top. While not taking the deadly toll of what the President just referred to as collateral damage…on the citizens of our own country.There are starving people in America. Homeless, foodless, healthcareless people……their dignity as human beings robbed from them, to give to the rich.
The Goal is a system where you can get obscenely rich, but you can’t get obscenely poor.
This IS done “on the backs of” the Rich. The Rich pay higher taxes, and this is an abomination to those who have already got theirs.
But societies and economies have to be built on the backs of somebody.
And at the end of the day, at the end of politics, at the end of moral values and moral hazard…it is eminently better for everyone, including the Rich…if society is built on the backs of people who actually have something.
Trying to build a society and economy on the backs of people who have nothing….gets you nothing.
No infrastructure, no functioning government, and as we are about to fully find out under Republican rule…A society that is constantly in chaos as it constantly works against itself. With no possibility of long term progress as the pendulum constantly swings through the cycle of animosity based political chaos that results from the constant state of warfare between Rich vs Poor.
This will be one of my final purely political essays, so I leave you with this thought.
Until the stated, unapologetic goal of The Left is Democratic Socialism….The Right will always win the framing battle….and thus the political battle.
Free Education, Free Health Care, solid safety nets, (even for lazy slackers and artists!) and as in Germany, the Workers having a seat at the Corporate Table.
That should be what The Left is fighting for, that IS in fact what The Left is fighting for…..‘they’ are just too afraid to come out and say it.
And until they do, they will lose to the clearly articulated but never spoken aloud, goal of The Right….which is of course, “I’ve got mine, screw you.”
The question du jour is what do Democrats (the alleged second party) stand for.
Until that is clearly answered with the phrase Democrats stand for “Justice For ALL, through Democratic Socialism” The Republicans will always win the framing battle, and thus the political battle.
Iow, the current paradigm is stacked against The Left. And the easiest way to change that paradigm, the first step towards changing it…is to change our goals and…to say what we are for.
How do we do that, when do we do that, and how long will it take? I refer you to the title.
21 comments
Skip to comment form
Author
With a portrait of how seriously anyone who proposes America embrace socialism will be taken!
larger process. For many people, we tried it the “nice” way, inside the established system and we even “won” playing by their Rules, we won! I hope thats what people (in general pop) are seeing. I mean, even with a Dem majority and POTUS, we still are getting the same b.s. corporatist policies enacted. Hell they cant even repeal DADT for gods sake.
So, once you let go of the hope that we can actually “WIN” on that track, then why not go for broke and go with what we really want anyway. Makes sense to me.
…politics from spirituality. Several years ago, HHDL said the political system most in keeping with spirituality, in theory at least, was communism. I think he might revise that today to say socialism, or democratic socialism.
And, as ToquedeVille pointed out in an essay here a couple of months ago, the New Deal was Compassion written into law. Compassion is universally recognized as the ‘highest’ value in virtually all known religions.
So, I can see a democratic socialism incorporating the virtues of compassion.
Short read, well worth the time. Linky here. Socialists in 1797, before the term existed, I think.
What a coinkydink. Just this past Tuesday I dropped an email to the office of the Socialist Party USA requesting information about the party. I said in my email that I had tried to work, in my own small way, within the two party system we have but that given Mr. Obamas sell out and the basic fact that the Ds and Rs are just two sides of the same coin I was looking for a better way.
We’ll just have to see what the send. I’ve read their constitution other stuff and I buy the Socialist idea so it might just be a good fit.. Also it’ll take my name off the D list which is, like the Anglicans to Roman Catholics, just Republican light.
“Until the stated, unapologetic goal of The Left is Democratic Socialism….The Right will always win the framing battle….and thus the political battle.”
That’s a good comment.