Thank You Sarah?

Yes, I know you might be thinking the boy has gone cuckoo. But hold on there. She has helped us to reintroduce the idea of socialism. Some day, not in the far too distant future, when a candidate for President is accused of a socialist idea he or she may say “absolutely, and it is the best solution to our present crisis.” Let me go back a little here.

During the great depression of the thirties I was a teenager and did a hell of a lot of marching, picketing and protesting. We were demanding social justice. The key word here is SOCIAL. And very close to it is the whole idea of socialism. I might describe it as an economic system based on social and economic justice for all. In our present system of dog eat dog capitalism, the biggest share of the economic pie goes to the top two percent of the population. Socialists, including Jesus, believe that is an unfair distribution of the wealth.

Back in the thirties, as a result of our marching, singing, and protesting, we were able to achieve a little bit of socialism and it is called SOCIAL SECURITY. There were other pieces of our social agenda, including unemployment insurance, home relief, and a Wagner Act that guaranteed the right of workers to collective bargaining. I think these socialist programs saved the capitalist system from its own destruction. The Social Democratic governments of Europe have been on this path since the thirties. They have learned that the best way to avoid social unrest is to achieve some economic stability via the road to socialism. That has given them the best universal health care systems in the world. Would I characterize these countries as socialist? No, I think not. What they offer is a willingness to compromise the “free market” notion of capitalism for some socialism, as needed.

In the present economic meltdown, low and behold the government jumps in to give a little economic support to the banks in order to keep the system afloat and avoid an explosion of social unrest. It’s the social unrest phenomena that scares the daylights out of the powers that be. So they try a little socialism to keep things under control. Sarah Palin, yapping that Obama sounds like a socialist, doesn’t have a clue what she is talking about. Any politician promising government intervention, be it Medicare, Medicade, or prescription drug payment, is talking socialist ideas. That brings me back full circle to Social Security. Remember when George Bush, Cheney, et al were going to privatize it? They learned pretty quickly from the reaction of seniors that there was going to be no fooling around with this great socialist idea.

Assuming Obama is our next President, I would hope that he borrows handily from the tool bag of socialist ideas about how to deal with the present crisis. Of couse it would be even greater if we had a functioning Socialist Party in this country that could actively educate the public about what socialism is all about. I know there are a lot of historic reasons why this hasn’t happened in our recent history. I do believe this period may be coming to an end. The present crisis is going to have profound effect on how our existing system works. The current worldwide intervention in the free-market system will make the market less and less free.

PS. Best news for Tuesday is that the bookmakers out of Las Vegas are giving the odds to Obama to win.

Thank you Kate. N.H.W.Y.