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Editor,

There is an enduring right-wing canard that were hearing more of these days: the Democratic Party is intent on turning America into a socialist nation. Cynical Republican politicians, Fox News and talk radio pundits, voices from the fever swamps of social media and more than a few Standard-Speaker letter writers are singing from the same hymnal.

They are not unlike Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass when he says to Alice: When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.

So what does socialism actually mean? The Oxford American Dictionary defines it as a political economic theory which advocates that the community as a whole should own and control the means of production, distribution and exchange. Which means in practice that a one-party central government runs a planned command and control economy which restricts private enterprise and property. That of course is the opposite of a democratic, free market society.

As most of us know, socialism has been thrown onto the dung heap of history. The stunning economic rise of communist China is precisely because it has abandoned the socialist system in favor of state capitalism while remaining a politically repressive dictatorship.

Paradoxically, some on the left such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez style themselves as Democratic Socialists, perhaps to make themselves appear to be more interesting than they actually are. Yet none of them have advocated the nationalization of Exxon, General Motors, Amazon or any other company. They are actually more like Scandinavian social democrats, who embrace capitalism tempered by generous social programs and a strong social safety net. Those nations are among the happiest in the world, as contrasted with America, which is experiencing decreased longevity, income inequality, social turmoil and increasing pessimism.

The Democratic agenda that is attempting to address the historical marginalization of women, racial minorities and the LGBTQ community is not socialistic. It is about economic and social justice. Furthermore, the American far left project of defunding the police, abolishing ICE and opening the borders to unlimited immigration is not socialistic. Socialist regimes are notoriously xenophobic police states.

Whatever the American left is actually all about, it is not socialist. Republicans need not worry that the Democrats will start a revolution. If the ultra progressives try to go too far left, they will lose Congress in the midterm election. Thats why we have a two-party system, to keep the country somewhere near the political middle.

Drew Magill

Sugarloaf Twp.

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What the Left is really about | Letters to the Editor | standardspeaker.com - Standard Speaker