For some time now, the Republican party has been maligning Democrats — and anyone who favors government programs designed to make life better for average citizens — by accusing them of being “Socialists.”
At the same time, there is a growing number of Democrats who are identifying themselves as either Democratic Socialists or Social Democrats . . . which has been enough to send the Republican masses into a frenzy, threatening to plunge the nation into a replay of the “Red Scare” of the 1950s.
For those people, it is just a short step from what they think of as “Socialism” to full-blown Communism. But they couldn’t be more wrong; and their error is the natural result of their lack of understanding of the different types of Socialism.
When someone like Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks about social programs, they are not trying to sell the sort of Marxist philosophy that Vladimir Lenin used to jump-start his transition to Communism and the creation of the oppressive Soviet state. That was very real, and completely disastrous; and it is what today’s right wing extremists are trying to frighten us with.
But in point of fact, it is that very sort of autocracy that the Republicans themselves are attempting to establish under Donald Trump’s leadership: ownership of everything by the elite few, and total control over every aspect of the lives of the downtrodden, impoverished proletariat.
However, there is the other side of so-called “Socialism,” which already exists in a number of free, social-democratic nations throughout the world . . . countries like Finland, which, not coincidentally, is ranked as “the happiest country in the world.”
And rather than embark on a long, boring explanation, I will let the words of the late President Harry S. Truman speak for me:
“Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years.
“Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they call social security.
“Socialism is what they called farm price supports.
“Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance.
“Socialismm is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations.
“Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.
“When the Republican candidate inscribes the slogan ‘Down With Socialism’ on the banner of his ‘great crusade,’ that is really not what he means at all.
“What he really means is, ‘Down with Progress — down with Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal,’ and ‘down with Harry Truman’s Fair Deal.’ That’s all he means.”
– Harry S Truman’s remarks in Syracuse, New York, October 10, 1952. [Source: Harry S. Truman Library & Museum.]
That was 74 years ago, and his words ring as true today as they did then.
As my pal Will Shakespeare asked, “What’s in a name?” Well, for some people, apparently quite a lot. It’s difficult to educate the uneducated if they don’t want to learn. So maybe it would be simpler and more productive for today’s “Socialists” to adopt a new name for themselves and eliminate the issue altogether.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Just sayin’ . . .
Brendochka
10/24/26
