Back in September 2019, I posted a blog article titled “Was Jesus a Socialist?” Soon after making that post, I became increasingly aware of democratic socialism. Even though I am not a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA, the largest socialist organization in the U.S., founded in 1982), I now self-identify as a democratic socialist.
Democratic
socialism is often misunderstood and unfairly maligned. For example, on July 1, Gary Bauer’s
daily “American Values” email began,
We will celebrate America’s 250th birthday this weekend. Whether America celebrates its 300th birthday 50 years from now is increasingly in doubt because our constitutional Republic is in danger! The danger to our freedom is not Donald Trump, who wants to make America great again. The danger is the radical Left that hates America and wants to “fundamentally transform” it.**
Bauer goes on
to write, “Yesterday’s election results in Colorado prove that the communist / Marxist
victories in New York City were not just a fluke isolated to New York City.” Then
he laments, “An anti-American, pro-Hamas communist defeated a far-left, 30-year
incumbent in the Democrat primary for the Denver-area House seat.”
Bauer is an
educated man, and he no doubt knows the distinct difference between democratic
socialism and communism. But he can conflate the two in order to increase
donations from the MAGA supporters who don’t know the difference. (People
seeking donations don’t necessarily tell the whole truth in order to profit
from the ignorance of the general public.)
It is a push to
say that Rep. DeGette is “far-left,” but it is almost libelous to say that
Melat Kiros is anti-American, pro-Hamas, and/or a communist. In that June 30 Colorado
primary election, 29-year-old candidate Kiros defeated the incumbent, who was
seeking her 15th term, first elected when Kiros was still an infant
in her native Ethiopia.
Kiros is
aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, but that is far from communism.
DSA’s platform centers on things like Medicare for all, workers’ rights, and
curbing corporate/billionaire power through democratic and electoral means.
Kiros’s own
reported platform—ending U.S. aid to Israel, Medicare for all, abolishing ICE—is
directly linked to DSA’s standard policy agenda but certainly not to communist aspirations.
DSA’s and Kiros’s platform are far different from the classic communist program
of abolishing private property via revolution and one-party state control.
On July 3, President
Trump delivered an anti-communist speech at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in Keystone, South
Dakota. Unlike Bauer, it is quite likely that the POTUS doesn’t clearly
understand the difference between communism and democratic socialism.
Three days
later, Robert Reich posted “Why Is He Using the Communist Trump
Card?” on his
Substack account. Reich writes, “Trump has run out of cards to play in the
midterm elections, which is why he’s now talking about the “communist menace.”
Reich continues
accusing the POTUS of “resorting to the oldest of right-wing tropes—accusing
Democrats (especially a rising generation of new, young, vigorous Democratic
politicians) of being commies.”
In that July 3
speech, Trump asserted, “There is now a resurgence of the communist menace in
our land, including from newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally
opposed to our way of life and our great success. You can be a communist, or
you can be a patriot. You cannot be both.”
Unlike Bauer,
perhaps Trump doesn’t know the difference between democratic socialism and
communism. Unfortunately, many of his MAGA supporters continue to take what he
says as true and trustworthy, so many of them have strong negative feelings
toward democratic socialism.
A Facebook
friend sent me a screenshot from Fox News showing what the Democratic Socialists
of America advocate, and those were given as reasons for their opposition to
the DSA. The image showed Medicare for all, college for all, housing for all,
32 hour workweek, tax the rich, Green New Deal, and free Palestine.
Except for the latter,
which is widely (and wrongly) interpreted as being “anti-Semitic,” the other
five are quite popular with most U.S. citizens except for the die-hard MAGA
supporters.
I continue to advocate
for democratic socialism, which aims to expand public ownership and workplace
democracy while preserving political democracy. It’s about shifting more
economic power to workers and the public. That also shifts the power from the
control of billionaires to the workers in the 98% who are not wealthy.
That sounds
good to me. What do you think?
_____
** Gary Bauer (b. 1946 in Kentucky) grew up as a Southern Baptist
and graduated from Georgetown College (in Kentucky), a traditional SB school (similar
to William Jewell College, my alma mater). He started an organization with the
name “American Values” in 2007 and has been the president of it until the
present. He sends out American Values emails almost daily. He has long been one
of the prime leaders of conservative evangelicalism in the U.S.
