“We’re not yet socialist but we have long been authoritarian “
Of course we are socialist. The collective is always placed ahead of the individual. The economy is centrally planned in numerous ways with some “private” ownership as long as it serves the collective. Medicine is 75% socialized between medicare, medicaid, obamacare, and the prescription drug plan. Social Security is socialist with it’s means testing, and lack of ownership of your account. How about growing a raisin? They all must feed into one common collective and cannot sell their wares elsewhere.
How about the official state atheism and militant hatred of Christianity?
The military draft/registration is known as “selective service” since Wilson created it. Why? Because he claimed the nation “collectively” volunteered via the Congress declaring war, and that he was only “selecting” soldiers from a giant pool of volunteers. Add in a myriad of new deal and great society programs which are steeped in socialism.
Americans swim in a sea of socialism and claim they are not socialist. We are.
As my dad used to say, “if this isn’t socialism, we can sure make do with it till a real socialist comes along.
Do not confuse welfare programs with socialism. Norway is a massively capitalist nation that funds a significant welfare system with the proceeds from oil and national wealth fund investments.
Socialism means the government controls all aspects of the economy and effectively usurps private ownership of everything.