Norman Thomas was an American Presbyterian minister who ran unsuccessfully for President of the United States six times in the early 1920’s as a member of the Socialist Party of America. There has always been Socialism and Socialists in America, back from our early history right up until today, and there’s nothing wrong with that. What is wrong is the American people, who fail to recognize a rose by any other name.
The fall of the Soviet Union was not the end of Socialists or Socialism. There are many countries in the world that are still Socialist. One of the greatest achievements of America is the very fact that a Socialist Party could exist in the first place and run for the Presidency which allowed out-in-the-open, card-carrying members of the Socialist party to run for various political offices all over the United States. But if Americans awareness of Socialism is limited to name only, and not substance, than Americans will not be able to recognize its implementation all around them until it’s too late. Which is exactly what has happened.
We consider Socialism as a political party and one that most Americans would not support and one that would have little chance of running for office successfully in the United States, but stop for a moment and reconsider Socialism as a belief system, as a sort of religion. Socialism, as a “religion,” is about creating an even-playing field, of equality, of “fairness” and equal results. The methods that must be employed to achieve this “equality” are brutal, destructive and ultimately produce the opposite effect, but like any religion, those that believe in it, believe in it contrary to any evidence or lack of evidence, contrary to history or precedent, contrary to any evils it might have done in the past. They believe, because it is the believing that is perceived as noble.
You can no more make a true Catholic disavow God and become an Atheist than you can convince a Socialist that pursuit of equality through Government is an ignoble cause. Therefore both old and new Socialists have not suddenly “disavowed their belief,” they have simply rebranded Socialism as part of the Democrat and Republican platforms. Consider the path of Socialism in America…
Our path towards Socialism started with Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs starting in 1933. Consider the following from Wikipedia…
The programs were in response to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call the “3 Rs”: Relief, Recovery, and Reform. That is, Relief for the unemployed and poor; Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.The New Deal produced a political realignment, making the Democratic Party the majority (as well as the party that held the White House for seven out of nine Presidential terms from 1933 to 1969), with its base in liberal ideas, the white South, traditional Democrats, big city machines, and the newly empowered labor unions and ethnic minorities. The Republicans were split, with conservatives opposing the entire New Deal as an enemy of business and growth, and liberals accepting some of it and promising to make it more efficient.
You can see that starting in 1933, The Democrat party “realigned” its base…much of it unchanged through today; relief for the unemployed and the poor, financial system reform (and regulation), supporting liberal ideas, promoting labor unions and ethnic minorities. You see also that the Republican party factioned, splitting into a sub-party that supported the Democrats new alignment but thought they could do it better, and a sub-party that resisted the entire movement towards Socialism.
When you consider the current Democrat and Republican parties, is that not what we still see? We have today a Democrat party that has fully adopted the “progressive” or “liberal” playbook (since we are not allowed to say Socialist). We have a Republican Party that makes all the same promises as the Democrats, but “different,” and that has become the Republican Party’s problem. If you believe in the Progressive movement, then you will vote for a Democrat because Republicans are just a watered-down version of Democrats. If you are a Libertarian or a Classical Conservative, you won’t vote for either, which was one of the reasons why voter turnout in 2012 was lower than both 2008 and 2004. An ever-increasing segment of the population has nobody to vote for and so casts no vote at all.
This has secured the success of the Democrat party and sealed the fate for Republicans as they have become the non-party. So how will Republicans respond to their new non-existent status? They are moving even further towards Progressivism. Absolute stupidity.
Norman Thomas himself admitted that both parties, Republican and Democrat, “…had borrowed items from the Socialist platform, including Social Security.” Remember that Social Security was part of the New Deal.
Upton Sinclair, the famous author who wrote, The Jungle, stated in a letter to Norman Thomas that it was not possible to convince Americans to adopt Socialism if they continued to call it Socialism. When Upton Sinclair ran for office in California he noted that when he ran as a politician seeking to, “End Poverty in California” rather than when he ran under the Socialist ticket, he achieved a 1,300% increase in votes.
That is the insidiousness of progressivism, liberalism, whatever name they want to call themselves. The Democrats have fully adopted the Socialist platform even though not a single one of them would call it that, or admit to it. The following is from Upton Sinclair’s letter…
The American People will take Socialism, but they won’t take the label. I certainly proved it in the case of EPIC. Running on the Socialist ticket I got 60,000 votes, and running on the slogan, ‘End Poverty in California’ I got 879,000. I think we simply have to recognize the fact that our enemies have succeeded in spreading the Big Lie. There is no use attacking it by a front attack, it is much better to out-flank them.
We are being out-flanked. We were out-flanked on November 6, 2012. There are so many Americans that are willing to support laws that help the poor, the old, the hungry, the sick, the minorities, the disabled and the students. We have Obamacare, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, WIC, SNAP, ADA and countless other programs. We are all willing to line up and tax the wealthy to make them pay their “fair share” so we can dictate where the money they earned should be spent, and who it should be given to. Just like Upton Sinclair said to Norman Thomas…Americans will not vote for Socialism…but promise to feed the hungry, house the homeless, assist the elderly, cure the sick, enrich the poor…and, “The American People WILL TAKE Socialism.”
You can click here to read an excellent article that highlights the newspapers at the time of FDR’s New Deal that called what he wanted to do Socialist, redistributive and was intended to break up wealth and lower large incomes. Even back then, they saw it for what it was. Obama has simply picked up where FDR left off, and is moving full steam ahead.
Categories: 2012 Election, Corporate Fascism, Cronycapitalism, Socialism
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