Alec Dea
Professor Datcher
Blog
31 January 2016
“Socialism”
is one of those words that strikes fear deep into the hearts of the American
people. Ironically enough, the average
American cannot even define accurately the term “socialism”. How can Americans be scared by something of
which they know nothing about? One of
the many mind-blowing talking points of the 2016 presidential election is the
credibility, or the lack there of, of the self-described democratic socialist,
Bernie Sanders. He is one of the most
polarizing presidential candidates in my lifetime. He proposes many foreign ideas that the
typical American politician would not even consider. Consequently, instead of breaking down Bernie
Sanders’ proposals and plans, people often dismiss his credibility because he
is a “socialist.” Personally, I did not
know much about the concept of socialism until I started following Bernie
Sanders. We tend to think of socialism
as an oppressive force akin to communism, even though it is much more conservative
than communism. Socialism focuses on the
economic and social arenas of public life.
However, it tends to be conflated with a dictatorial style of big government. Obama often found himself attached to the
label of socialism by critics who disagreed with Obamacare. In fact, socialism states that the means of
production in a country are to be publicly owned, and under Obamacare, private
health insurance companies still hold a substantial amount of power. Another common misrepresentation of socialism
is that it entails a literal redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor
via taxes. Even if this were true, we
still must distinguish between socialism and Bernie’s idea of “democratic socialism”, which he states is a
quasi form of socialism where the state enacts socialist policies in conjunction
with free market capitalism in an attempt to balance power. The goal of democratic socialism is to see
that big corporate bureaucracies do not run our country, hence the term
“democratic”.
What’s ironic
about our country’s disdain for socialism is that the two most successful
government programs in the history of our country are socialist programs:
Social security and Medicare. In
addition, Medicaid, the construction and upkeep of roads, clean water, the VA,
and even the military are all socialist practices. Realizing these facts shows how paradoxical
it is when Americans continuously demonize socialism. We would not be where we are as a country if
it weren’t for these socialist practices.
Consequently, it becomes evident that Bernie Sanders’ ideas for our
country can be simply seen as a step in the right direction, building on the
successes from our current policies. He
wants to advance Medicare to a single payer health system that includes a Medicare
for all system where Americans don’t go bankrupt trying to pay their medical
bills. He wants to expand the safety net
for social security. He wants to rebuild
our infrastructure and improve the efficiency of our VA system. I see this as an attempt to improve our
current system, not an evil, revolutionary overhaul of the United States. In addition, Bernie has incessantly stated
that a simple overview of his plan dictates that we want the private sector to
do what it does best, and the government to do what it does best. If we look back at history, Bernie’s plans
would complete the vision FDR had for our country. FDR’s brilliant New Deal plan focused on
relieving the economic hardships of the poor and reforming the financial system
to avoid potential depressions. The New
Deal became the staple of “Progressivism”, but now, these ideas seen through a
Bernie Sanders lens elicit fearful responses of a socialist takeover. The GOP’s beloved Dwight Eisenhower had a 92%
marginal tax rate under his administration. Our country’s history shows that we have
implemented socialist ideas, even under some of our most famous leaders. If the American people take the time to look
into the facts, we will see that Bernie’s idea of “democratic socialism” is not
so foreign and dangerous as his opponents would like us to think. But rather, it is our political equilibrium, which
has shifted so far to the right, that distorts our ability to determine what
would be beneficial and detrimental for the country.
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