Democratic Socialism

*

I would call myself a left libertarian democratic socialist, but with the emphasis on libertarian democrat. However, no one of reasonable intelligence, with any slight idea of what our history and present realities are, should be in the slightest afraid of the term “democratic socialist”. More importantly, we must realize it is now a choice between freedom and democracy, or our present mode and direction, which is a global corporate police state.

*

The system has been high-jacked by a 50-year-long slow motion corporate fascist coup, which has come to fruition in 2020. The system is broken. Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and Martin Luther King Jr. would urge revolution now. So do I. There is no alternative remaining.

*

We must unite the people. To do that, we must overcome false dichotomies and see our commonality and common cause. Therefore, to back up a bit and assuage fears of left vs right false battle lines, and red scare fear-mongering, Ralph Nader explains these basic facts in ways an intelligent eight year old can understand:

*

“Crooked Donald Trump, the erstwhile failed gambling czar and corporate welfare king, is assailing Bernie Sanders for his “radical socialism.” How ludicrous given Trump’s three-year giveaway of taxpayer assets and authorities to giant corporations – a perfect portrait of crony capitalism.

*

Others are joining the socialist labeling bandwagon, including corporatist right wing radio talk show blowhards, themselves freeloaders, profitably using the public airwaves. This pack includes Lloyd Blankfein, former lawbreaking chairman of Goldman Sachs.

*

Bernie knows, of course, how to rebut this distorted interpretation of “democratic socialism.” But will his rebuttals be enough given that the Biden-Bloomberg-Klobuchar wing of the Democratic Party is determined to label Bernie “unelectable” against the boastful Don the Con?

*

Some suggestions for Bernie and others to use in this upcoming back and forth on “democratic socialism” vs. “corporate socialism” of the super-rich corporations:

*

1. Go after the corporate socialists who have invited Wall Street and Big Business to socialize the means of government against the peoples’ necessities and freedoms. It is a government of, by, and for the dominant corporations. Such private power dominating our government in so many reported ways was called “fascism” in 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a formal message to Congress. This is a fertile field for taking the offensive.

*

2. “Democratic socialism is a political force in countries like Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, sometimes Canada, and others. In these places, it means all the people in those countries get their taxes returned in the form of improved livelihoods, economic security, and peace of mind. Democratic socialism means better pay, universal healthcare, pensions, day care, family sick leave, vacations, tuition-free higher education, robust public transit and parks, and many other amenities backed by stronger unions, denied the American people in the “land of the free and home of the brave.” Since World War II, the European political movements were led by “social democratic” parties.”

*

And note what the socialist policy of the Pentagon, in one of its rare moments of sanity, created for the world, which Big Pharma refused to do: create profit-free, affordable malaria drugs for the world.

*

“At a meeting long ago with top medical officials at the Walter Reed Army hospital, I was told that after learning the second leading cause of hospitalization for U.S. soldiers in Vietnam was malaria, the U.S. Army asked the drug companies to develop remedies. The negative response was that developing medicines to deal with malaria wasn’t profitable enough. In response, the Pentagon brought together skilled doctors and scientists and started its own “drug company” inside Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval Hospitals. For less than 10 percent of what the big drug companies say it costs, our government developed three out of four of the leading anti-malarial drugs in the world and made them available everywhere without any patents producing big pharma-like profits.”

*

And a few more voices of sanity amidst the madness and deceit, should give us further pause to reflect:

*

“I have reported four US election campaigns, beginning with Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated in my presence. Violence is the true emblem of undemocratic US politics and its contempt for humanity. No amount of spin for Biden/Harris will make them appear different. They aren’t.”
– John Pilger

*

“But remember, this power of the people on top depends on the people below. When people stop obeying, they have no power.”
– Howard Zinn

*

“If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
— Samuel Adams

*

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” – John F. Kennedy

*

Bernie might have bailed on us; but that doesn’t mean that we can’t choose freedom, democracy, justice, ecology and peace – which, by the way, must come together now, or we will have none of them at all. It means, as we should have known, and many of of did, and said, that real change comes from below.

*

Five billion people were living in poverty in 2019, and that number will skyrocket over the next 18 months. Revolution is required – non-violent, Gandhian revolution, as Martin Luther King Jr. would also surely urge now.

*

It is not a matter of right vs left. It is a matter of a new global fascist corporate oligarchy versus freedom and democracy. More to the point: It is the 1% vs the 99%.

*

Remember also the words of Thomas Jefferson:

*

“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”

*

“I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the      political world as storms in the physical.”

*

What are we waiting for?

*

Our world hangs in the balance.

*

JTR,

August 20, 2020

*

My apologies again for WordPress bugs that prevent me from properly formatting this article – hence the stars for paragraph breaks.

*

See my article, Flash Drive Revolution, for some key strategic considerations

*

Ralph Nader on Democratic Socialism vs Corporate Socialism:

https://nader.org/2020/02/15/democratic-socialism-bring-it-on-corporate-socialists/