An educated look at

Posted: Nov 7, 2015

Labor laws (that MTs keep trying to enact in their favor but they are getting push back from the corporate owners), voting rights, Social Security, the Pledge of Allegiance, America the Beautiful, Einstein, W.E.B. DuBois, all created by "socialists" or were socialists. During the Cold War, many Americans confused democratic socialism with communism. In fact, democratic socialists opposed the totalitarian governments of the Soviet Union, China and their satellites. That's because democratic socialism is about democracy -- giving ordinary people a greater voice in both politics and the workplace. Although Sanders says that America needs a "grassroots political revolution," he is actually a reformer, not a revolutionary. His version of democratic socialism is akin to what most people around the world call "social democracy," which seeks to make CAPITALISM MORE HUMANE. ****(One would think MTs would get this by now, unless the 4 or 5 that are so steadfast in their conservative ways are employed by hospital umbrellas or have rich, well paid husbands/wives). ***** In the early 1900s, socialists led the movements for women's suffrage, child labor laws, consumer protection laws and the progressive income tax. In 1916, Victor Berger, a socialist congressman from Milwaukee, sponsored the first bill to create "old age pensions." The bill didn't get very far, but two decades later, in the midst of the Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt persuaded Congress to enact Social Security. Even then, some critics denounced it as un-American. But today, most Americans, even conservatives, believe that Social Security is a good idea. What had once seemed radical has become common sense. FOR THOSE CONFUSED ABOUT BOLSHEVIKS--- In essence, social democracy would provide a framework that was to transcend capitalism in a gradual manner, meaning with no revolution and with no violence, and through the legislative process install policies that would tame capitalism, improve the human condition and eventually move toward socialism. Those who thought this method was too soft included the Russian Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin. These two different paths to socialism led to people becoming bitter enemies. In the late 1960s, democratic socialism emerged and basically rejected the dictatorial and intolerant nature of communism, as well as the bureaucratic stalemate and boring institutionalism of conventional social democratic parties. ;