by John McClaughry
Here’s an intriguing quote from last Wednesday’s Weekly Dispatch: “Freddie deBoer considers himself a democratic socialist, but he’s come to a conclusion that very few of his fellow leftists have. “It’s time for young socialists and progressive Democrats to recognize that our beliefs just might not be popular enough to win elections consistently. It does us no favors to pretend otherwise,” he writes for The New York Times.
“The idea that most Americans quietly agree with our positions is dangerous, because it leads to the kind of complacency that has dogged Democrats since the “emerging Democratic majority” myth became mainstream. Socialists can take some heart in public polling that shows Americans warming to the abstract idea of socialism. But ‘socialism’ is an abstraction that means little without a winning candidate. And too much of this energy seems to stem from the echo-chamber quality of social media, as young socialists look at the world through Twitter and TikTok and see only the smiling faces of their own beliefs reflected back at them. Socialist victory will require taking a long, hard road to spread our message, to convince a skeptical public that socialist policies and values are good for them and the country. Which is to say, it will take decades.”
This can’t be good news for Bernie Sanders, who hasn’t got decades to keep struggling on.
Well, I hope it takes decades – at least. Centuries would be even better.
The author is a Kirby resident and founder of the Ethan Allen Institute.
Categories: Commentary
“Well, I hope it takes decades – at least. Centuries would be even better.” The fact of the matter is Mr. McClaughry that the proof that Socialism is “a dog that don’t hunt” is all around us now, and has been for decades, but people like Comrade Sanders keep expounding on it’s virtues in spite of it’s failures. Even the countries that socialistic proponents like the refugee from Brooklyn propose as success stories, just have not been given enough time to fail yet. Many of these countries are modifying accepted Socialist conventions towards Capitalism simply because they just do not work. I would offer our neighbor Canada as an example. If socialized health care is such a great thing, why do so many Canadians who can afford to, come to the U.S. for medical treatments ? I believe that European style Socialism is no better as they also seem to be slowly realizing that, and be walking it back towards Capitalism. People like Comrade Sanders know this, so why do they keep beating that drum ? It’s not for the good of the collective !
Socialism is similar to modern environmental/climate catastrophism as they are both more similar to religion. They have belief systems that are immune to critical reasoning. One accepts their tenets on faith, the tenets are neither provable nor disprovable. Nonbelievers are treated as heretics. And like religions their leaders are poorly equipped to lead consensual politics in modern western societies….anyone really want to move to Iran?