The Land of the Free, and the Home of the Socialists: Part II

THE TERM "SOCIALISM" was invented in the early nineteenth century by a wealthy Welsh industrialist who, although he practiced capitalism for himself, advocated socialsim for others, indeed for all, and inspired others to write about, develop, and expand on the economic theory, a theory which spread and became quite popular, especially among the working class, and remains popular today. (See "The Land of the Free, and the Home of the socialists": Part I) Ever since, there has been a sizeable community of socialists in the United States, a community of sufficient size to earn the description "mainstream". There has been a tendencyamong socialists to carefully use the term "democratic socialism", to distinguish it from totalitarian forms of government. Today, most European countries have a democratic socialist government, as arguably, so does the United States, to a certain but limited extant. In Europe socialism works like a charm. Most Euopean countries are far more prosperous that the U.S, although Americans, indoctrinated by conservative media, are unaware of this. These facts are of course disputed, under false pretenses and for their own purposes, by American conservatives. Various American socialist political parties have never had the majorities necessary to win presidential elections in America, but Bernie Sanders, who describes himself as a "democratic socialist", came closer than many people might prefer. There have been many socialists who served as Mayors, State Representatives, and in other offices, most notably a mayor of Milwaukee, among other places. In 1920 labor union organizer Eugene V. Debs ran for president, and got more than a million votes despite being in jail at the time, for union organizing. He had also run in 1912, for the Socialist Party, and one out of six Oklahoma voters voted for him, mainly union members and small farmers, to whom he promised land reform and government agricultural assistance. Socialist programs such as Medicare, Medicade, Obamacare, the minimum wage, and workplace safety laws, all of which were once considered radical, "un-American", and impossible to implement, we take for granted today and could not imagine life without. They were all enacted with the help of the socialist movement, usually encassed within the Democratic party. I once asked my mother, who was born in 1920, whether she voted for Roosevelt, and she gave me two answers: "No", and "hell no". She remained a staunch opponent of socialism to her dying day. I am still not sure precisely what she thought socialsim is, maybe something akin to big government telling folks what to do; but one thing she knew for sure is that Roosevelt was one of them, and she wasn't having any part of it. She told me that when Social Security started in 1935 when she was a teenager, she and her parents were convinced that that they would never get out of it what they paid into it. In fact, she lived on Social Securiy for twenty seven years, got much more out of it than she ever contributed to it, but probably wouldn't vote for FDR if he ran today. This exemplifies perfectly the confusion most Americans have about exactly what socialism actually is, Americans who enjoy the beneifts of public highways, public schools, and public fire and police protection, even while condeming the dreadful specter of socialism-communism, or whatever, and who vow to resist to the death its incursion into their beloved America, land of the free, and the home of corporate control.