The party of Kennedy has become the party of freedom hating nut jobs and loons. Fish is right.
Though Wasserman Shultz may not have gotten the memo, executing that reliable rhetorical maneuver is no longer necessary. Democrats in 2015 are all-in for socialism. An October YouGov poll revealed that Democrats view socialism more favorably than they do capitalism, by 49 percent to 37 percent. Calling yourself a socialist is no disqualifier for public office in today’s Democratic Party. It might become a requirement.
Tearing a page from Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals—“If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive”—Democratic leaders like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are road-testing a redefinition of socialism that they hope the American public finds palatable. It goes like this: government is just the things that we do together; doing things together is socialism; government is socialism. We have a government already; therefore, we have socialism already. Get over it.
In a March Daily Kos article, “75 Reasons Not to Fear Socialism,” Jerry Nelson declared that “socialism is alive and well in America and it’s been here for decades.” As proof, he offered examples ranging from the unobjectionable—bridges, public schools, and the GI Bill—to the absurd—government, the law, and civilization. “I think there are a lot of people who, when they hear the word ‘socialist,’ get very, very nervous,” Sanders said recently. But they shouldn’t, he suggested, because socialism is just another word for all the wonderful things in life. “You go to your public library, or you call your fire department or police department, what do you think you are calling? These are socialist institutions.”
http://www.city-journal.org/2015/eon1021mh.html
Here's the bottom line (literally and figuratively).
Bernie Sanders promises to give a policy speech in the coming weeks outlining his vision of Scandinavian-style “social democracy” for America. One imagines that he will make reference to public parks, teachers, paid family leave, and NPR. “Do you like that stuff?” he’ll ask. “If you do, then you’re a socialist.” He won’t mention socialism’s unbroken record of failure and its fundamental incompatibility with human nature. Whether Democrats succeed in rebranding socialism will depend on whether enough Americans believe that saying something often enough can make it so.
Though Wasserman Shultz may not have gotten the memo, executing that reliable rhetorical maneuver is no longer necessary. Democrats in 2015 are all-in for socialism. An October YouGov poll revealed that Democrats view socialism more favorably than they do capitalism, by 49 percent to 37 percent. Calling yourself a socialist is no disqualifier for public office in today’s Democratic Party. It might become a requirement.
Tearing a page from Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals—“If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive”—Democratic leaders like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are road-testing a redefinition of socialism that they hope the American public finds palatable. It goes like this: government is just the things that we do together; doing things together is socialism; government is socialism. We have a government already; therefore, we have socialism already. Get over it.
In a March Daily Kos article, “75 Reasons Not to Fear Socialism,” Jerry Nelson declared that “socialism is alive and well in America and it’s been here for decades.” As proof, he offered examples ranging from the unobjectionable—bridges, public schools, and the GI Bill—to the absurd—government, the law, and civilization. “I think there are a lot of people who, when they hear the word ‘socialist,’ get very, very nervous,” Sanders said recently. But they shouldn’t, he suggested, because socialism is just another word for all the wonderful things in life. “You go to your public library, or you call your fire department or police department, what do you think you are calling? These are socialist institutions.”
http://www.city-journal.org/2015/eon1021mh.html
Here's the bottom line (literally and figuratively).
Bernie Sanders promises to give a policy speech in the coming weeks outlining his vision of Scandinavian-style “social democracy” for America. One imagines that he will make reference to public parks, teachers, paid family leave, and NPR. “Do you like that stuff?” he’ll ask. “If you do, then you’re a socialist.” He won’t mention socialism’s unbroken record of failure and its fundamental incompatibility with human nature. Whether Democrats succeed in rebranding socialism will depend on whether enough Americans believe that saying something often enough can make it so.
