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2018-08-03 Home Front: Politix

Democratic socialism, explained by a democratic socialist

[VOX] "They are not traditional socialists. There is no call for communal ownership of production," said an MSNBC anchor while attempting to define "democratic socialism," a term that has burst onto the political scene since the unexpected win of democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a New York primary for a House of Representatives seat.

"I am open to persuasion on this, but my instinct is that if what you mean by ’democratic socialism’ is ’stuff FDR proposed’ you might be better off using a more all-American reference point like the New Deal or FDR," Vox senior correspondent Matt Yglesias said.

"Democratic Socialists will not be covered [by the media] as the radicals that they are," Glenn Beck said on his show. "They’ll be covered as ’innovative, millennial-friendly upstarts with fresh ideas’ when they’re really diet-Communism."

"It’s petrifying to me that this is being normalized," said Meghan McCain on The View.

The phrase is indeed everywhere. In addition to Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Bernie Sanders and now New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon have claimed the label. Meanwhile, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the country’s largest socialist group, is seeing its membership explode from 6,000 in summer 2016 to more than 45,000 today. And the media doesn’t quite know what to make of it all.

I’m a staff writer at the socialist magazine Jacobin and a member of DSA, and here’s the truth: In the long run, democratic socialists want to end capitalism. And we want to do that by pursuing a reform agenda today in an effort to revive a politics focused on class hierarchy and inequality in the United States. The eventual goal is to transform the world to promote everyone’s needs rather than to produce massive profits for a small handful of citizens.

Posted by Besoeker 2018-08-03 01:07|| || Front Page|| [11133 views ] Top

#1 And to achieve that they'll need to pile power after power into the government, and then act surprised when it turns into a tyranny.

Posted by Herb McCoy 2018-08-03 03:10|| 2018-08-03 03:10|| Front Page Top

#2 "I don't understand gangster mind. I know what to do about gangsters." - Lazarus Long

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2018-08-03 03:15|| 2018-08-03 03:15|| Front Page Top

#3 I'd term it oikophobic socialism.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2018-08-03 05:04|| 2018-08-03 05:04|| Front Page Top

#4 "It’s petrifying to me that this is being normalized," said Meghan McCain on The View.

Please remind me how your father voted when it came time to spike Obamacare, as was his professed goal ever since they started talking about it.

Posted by gorb 2018-08-03 10:34|| 2018-08-03 10:34|| Front Page Top

#5 Socialism is not at all democratic you idiots.

Posted by newc 2018-08-03 14:37|| 2018-08-03 14:37|| Front Page Top

#6 slavery could be "democratic" 51% could vote to enslave the 49%.

They could vote every year to renew and it would be democratic.

It's a constitution that limits state power and ensures equal (which entails a small states as equal gets messy when it comes to entitlements) treatment by the state which is important.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2018-08-03 14:43|| 2018-08-03 14:43|| Front Page Top

#7 Call it National Socialism. They have less obvious propaganda but they have the racism, the enforcement thugs, and their actual plan may not be invasion of neighbors but they have a similar fluid concept of national borders.

Posted by rjschwarz 2018-08-03 18:03|| 2018-08-03 18:03|| Front Page Top

05:28 Whiskey Mike
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