Recent Comments on Socialism

Here's a comment I posted to the Seeking Alpha Blog, in response to another author's comment that appears to conflate Socialism with Fascism:

"I like most of your ideas, Oldfoxbob, and ironically most of your ideas like making the rich pay more in taxes, giving welfare to the poor, extending unemployment benefits and creating jobs with government projects are things Democrats want and they are all things the right calls Socialism, and many of these ideas are present in Socialist countries. 

The problem is that Fox News and the GOP have succeeded in brainwashing average Americans into equating ANY government project with Socialism and making you think that Fascism = Socialism, when in fact they are not equal. What we have had in the US since the mid-19th century is a mixed economy that combines public and private enterprise.

Just as we have for 150 years, the US has a market-based economy, we enjoy all our democratic freedoms AND we have strong government programs. But, as long as the Republicans and Fox News continue to perpetuate the myth that sensible, Keynesian economic policies like you advocate are part of a slippery slope to "Socialism" (meaning fascism with no democratic freedom as opposed to the real meaning, which is a government that protects the poor from being exploited by the rich) then we will never get the change that most average Americans including you and me actually want. 

Your fear of immigrants and demand for "English-only" is an important part of the problem. Who wants to pay their fair-share of taxes if you are also afraid that your money is going to help people like "welfare queens" even though they represent an incredibly small percentage of users of our safety nets?"

If "Oldfoxbob" is indicative of many Americans, it confirms Michael Moore's hypothesis that the vast majority of American's want the policies of Democrats, but are afraid to vote for them....in the case of "Oldfoxbob", apparently because they are also afraid of a diverse America.

The Kucinich Amendment

State-backed (ie California, not Federal) single-payer is not Totalitarian Socialist health care, much as Fox News would have you believe. Evidence is mounting that even with a public option, there will be little pressure on insurance companies to lower rates.

I support the Kucinich Amendment. State-backed single-payer initiatives like they have in Massachusetts appear to be the best way to bring costs under control. Private insurance companies can still offer their plans and supplemental services. You can opt-out and buy the "private option," (much as we have single-payer public education and you can opt-out for private schools), which disproves fear-mongering right-wingers' assertions that private industry will disappear from America as liberal, well-educated elites attempt to implement a state-controlled, Marxist economic system via Emperor Obama's iron-fisted rule!