It’s time to give socialism a try

WAPO ^ | March 6, 2018 | Elizabeth Bruenig

[PROCON]

In the United States, we’ve arrived at a pair of mutually exclusive convictions: that liberal, capitalist democracies are guaranteed by their nature to succeed and that in our Trumpist moment they seem to be failing in deeply unsettling ways. For liberals — and by this I mean inheritors of the long liberal tradition, not specifically those who might also be called progressives — efforts to square these two notions have typically combined expressions of high anxiety with reassurances that, if we only have the right attitude, everything will set itself aright.

Hanging on and hoping for the best is certainly one approach to rescuing the best of liberalism from its discontents, but my answer is admittedly more ambitious: It’s time to give socialism a try.

[right way right]

It’s not time to try Socialism, it’s time to kick Socialists in the teeth.

[Steve_Seattle]

" . . . capitalism seems to be at odds with the harmonious, peaceful, stable liberalism of midcentury dreams."

Capitalism, the Constitution, Christianity, and a strong American military were the primary reasons for the "stable liberalism of mid-century," and people like her want to eliminate all four.

[freedumb2003]

>>Venezuela.<<

My thought exactly.

[GOPJ]

This story belonw shows the true face of 'American Socialism'. Bill Ayers was a Hyde Park friend of Obama's and was rumored to have penned 'Dreams of My Father' for Obama. Bill Ayers probably knew Bernie Sanders... The quote out is Bill Ayers talking about what would happen if Socialists took over and the number of people who would have to be murdered:

https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/2455-obamas-friend-ayers-kill-25-million-americans

"In No Place to Hide, Grathwohl explains that the Weathermen actually believed that they would be successful in overthrowing the U.S. government and that, with the help of the Cubans, Chinese, Russians, and North Vietnamese, they would occupy America. Americans would have to be "re-educated" in camps, similar to what the communists did in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and other countries they had taken over.

Here is one of the chilling revelations Larry Grathwohl made in the film:

I asked, "Well what is going to happen to those people we can't reeducate, that are diehard capitalists?" And the reply was that they'd have to be eliminated.

And when I pursued this further, they estimated they would have to eliminate 25 million people in these reeducation centers.

And when I say "eliminate," I mean "kill."

Twenty-five million people.

I want you to imagine sitting in a room with 25 people, most of which have graduate degrees, from Columbia and other well-known educational centers, and hear them figuring out the logistics for the elimination of 25 million people and they were dead serious.

[Doogle]

Nitwit...

[dfwgator]

"Here's another issue that may interest you: "Soviet Communism -- Let's Give It a Chance"! I'll bet there are some of you who have opinions on this one. That's Soviet Communism here -- here and now! Here, in this country, in your own community. I guess there are plenty of good, red-blooded Americans out there who'll have a little something to say about that. And, if there are, and you want to talk back to me, Frank Noland, I'm prepared to talk back to you! Maybe you forgot to make a note of those numbers. The numbers again are eight zero-zero, five-five-five, three-three-one-zero -- one-one, one-two, one-three, one-four, one-five, one-six, one-seven, one-eight and one-nine. And I'm ready to talk back on these same topics: Federally Supported Municipal Bonds, Forced Busing, and "Soviet Communism Here and Now"! I, Frank Noland, am ready to talk back to you in support of spending federal funds to bus known Soviet Communists into your community now -- to teach your children and to live in your house, whether you like it or not! Now, if anyone has another position, and it's your right as an American to disagree, give me a call on one of these toll-free lines."

"How 'bout this? "Killing Puppies -- It Doesn't Bother Me" ... That's me, Frank Noland, and I LIKE dead puppies! Frankly, I'm totally in favor of using federally supported municipal bonds to pay for forced busing of Soviet Communists to come into your homes to kill your puppies! Give me a call, won't you? The lines are open. Tell ME what you think about it.......Dead, mangled puppies ... I like 'em ... "

[Brilliant]

It’s time to get off this merry go round.

[Mariner]

She’s an idiot product of American Intelligentsia.

Unfortunately, there’s millions of them, and they were all produced with taxpayer subsidy.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

This piece is so naive it's really not worth entertaining at all. If I were a political science professor teaching a 101-level class and one of my students turned this in, I'd be pissed; especially because the author was trying to sound intellectual but obviously didn't grasp the meaning of the quotes she quoted - especially Fukuyama. What is this, 1991?

Brandeis. My God, you're churning out a sub-par product.

[D Rider]

European socializim was paid for by US military funding for the last 70 years. Anyone familiar with western European token militarily know what I mean. Socializim has never succeeded anywhere without some kind of subsidization somewhere.

[KC Burke]

I guess she is now an Assistant Editor at WaPo and not just a guest from New Republic as I posted earlier.

Absolutely corrosive socialistic vile thought covered up by a young pretty face.

[plain talk]

From Wikipedia. These people are creating words and phrases out the wazoo.

“Decommodification has been identified as a strategy for sustainable consumption that acts one level up on the institutional context of consumption in Western societies as compared to strategies such as eco-efficiency and eco-sufficiency.”

[Safetgiver]

Over 100 years of failure means nothing.......A lot longer than 100 years. This country started out as Socialist and they didn’t know it. Once all the product was warehoused, the people who did NOT produce it broke in and stole it. The young people who produced refused to work for nothing and eventually the governing people gave land, seed and help to the workers. Voila! (Or in the American vernacular, “Holy Balls!!) things turned around and there was a surplus at most times.

[i_robot73]

>
>>
The classic — “They didn’t do it right last time. We have better people now, so it will certainly succeed if we give it another chance.”
>>

We’ve been down this road about a million times.
>

True, but the opposition NEVER ‘cleans house’ of those whom promote\support these failed ideologies (Thugocracies).

Seems, IMO, they are always allowed to escape and begin the cycle anew. No firing-squads, no huntin-’em-down

Never do they look back and encode into Law a correction. I mean, we have La Raza, the Communist Party, etc. ACTIVELY engaged in the downfall of the U.S. and We do....*NOTHING*. Not even ‘round up and ship to their totalitarian regime of choice. Multiple wars we’ve fought to education and point to as examples, but no follow-thru

[Amendment10]

"It’s time to give socialism a try."

FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument

Our tired, depressed nation has been giving unconstitutional socialism a try for the last 80 years (FDR).

I am very satisfied that successful business maverick Pres. Trump is rescuing us from socialism.

[i_robot73]

>
We’ve already leaned in that direction far enough to cause a lot of economic trouble.

No thanks. Time to move back toward capitalism.
>

Sorry, I don’t want it ‘moved back’. I want it IMMEDIATELY RESTORED.

Govt doesn’t ‘move back’ on its own, fast enough, if it would move back to ‘start’ at all.

No, it must be HALTED, terminated and Rights\Liberty\Free Market restored.

Like any balanced budget, it’s always back-loaded...NEVER give ‘em an inch.

[Meet the New Boss]

Socialism would make our government-media-university Bolshevik elites into the ultimate class of Robber Barons, giving them a complete stranglehold on the lives of the population and the ability to extract as much value as they like for the benefit of the Ruling Class.

They understand that the first thing they need to do is disarm flyover white Americans. Hence the constant media drumbeat for gun control.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

I doubt this leftist really wants to reduce her masters’ control over politics and culture. She also doesn’t seem to be aware we’ve been trying socialism since the 1930’s.

[lastchance]

Well she is welcome to practice private socialism at any time. Dibs on her vacation house.

But to reply, it means she is ready and able to have the government commit theft in her name on a much larger scale than you’ve ever feared. It means turning the ownership of businesses either to the government or to a worker’s cadre. It means letting government set prices and wages and strict control over assets and profits. Oh and less manufacture of goods because “envy” and “wealth disparity”. If everyone has to use the same toilet paper then we avoid pointing out the stark differences in our economic classes.

It means she longs for a Stalin to show us the way!

[lastchance]

You have to break open a few skulls (o.k, a lot) and terrorize a populace, but hey Utopia is worth it.