Sunday, February 20, 2011

Socialism doesn't oppress people, people do.

In 2009, the White House once again became occupied by a Democrat.  Fear of socialism rose to a level not seen since the last time a Democrat was President.

The people afraid of socialism somehow overtaking America will typically repeat the same reasons why they think socialism bad.  "Socialism is a process that has been proven by history to fail every time."  "Socialism suppresses individual freedom and liberty."  "Socialism is contrary to what America is supposed to be and the principles it was founded on."

On all points, they are correct.  But only if you limit it to dictatorships who have abused it and their own people.  Due to the Cold War, McCarthyism, and many dictatorships who called themselves socialist, many Americans understandably associate socialism with failure and oppression.  The problem with this is that socialism exists, and has always existed, in our own country.

Socialism exists and thrives in America, despite those who say it has no place here and is contrary to everything our country was founded on.  To say that America should have zero socialism is to say that we should end all of the following:

Medicare
Medicaid
Social Security
FDA
USDA
FAA
Police Departments
Fire Departments
Public Schools
Public Libraries
Public roads
Public parks
Public utilities
Public transportation
US Postal Service
Border Patrol
DEA
Immigration
US Armed Services

I do not mean just one or a few of these these.  I mean every single one of them.  Either you are an advocate of getting rid of every last thing I listed, and the thousands of other socialist parts of our country I did not list, or you're acknowledging (whether you want to or not) that socialism does indeed have a role to play in our country.

Those things are all socialist and government run.  Yet they do what they were designed to do quite well.  Most people are aware of why these things are necessary and what would happen if any of them either went away or were privatized. 

The rest are the people I was talking about at the beginning of this.  Sadly, those people are not likely to ever get it.  They're more likely to read this, dismiss it, and call me a communist.

They do not make money because they were never intended to.  Certain things are necessary for a country to function.  Some of those things would never make money, which means private industry would never do them.  This is why the government does these things.  This is why some socialism is necessary.

We want/need certain things done that the private sector would never do or would only do for the richest of us.  So we have our government do it for us.

Even those that oppose things I listed, would never directly state it.  Social security has been under attack since it was created, but how many elected officials have publicly voiced a desire to abolish it.  They know it would be political suicide because it's a program that is well known as one that works.

Opponents of socialist programs rarely attack the specific programs they don't like directly.  They attack socialism itself.  It's more vague and saves them from the guaranteed backlash of attacking a specific program.  We should not let them.  When someone attacks socialism, point out socialism they support themselves.  They are attacking socialism because they do not understand it and do not realize that they actually support it.

Yes, socialism has been used as tool by some very bad men to do some very bad things.  But so have guns.  It's not the guns themselves that are bad.  It's how they're used.

As I've described above, we already utilize socialism responsibly.  Guns can be used responsibly without getting rid of them completely.  And so can socialism.

1 comment:

  1. Few American Democrats consider themselves socialists. In the U.S. 'liberal' has been seen as a bad word. Many Dems run from that title. In reality all 1rst world countries have mixed economies with the government taking an active role in private enterprise and social programs. Medicaid, anti-trust laws, bailing out Chrysler. Furthermore Keystone is a good idea which will = jobs, jobs, jobs!

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