Over the last several years I have had increasing concerns that
the mainstream Democratic elected officials and candidates have embraced a
socialist ideology.
I don’t know much about Dunec other than what he
wrote here. I left these comments, slightly edited for clarity:
The increasing embrace of socialism by the
Democratic Party is a sea change away from the “liberal” welfare state
Democrats, so it’s important to get this understanding right. Welfare statism
is different in crucial respects from socialism, democratic or otherwise. The
limited socialism of the welfare state, while rights-violating, is supposedly
intended only as a “safety net” for capitalism, not a replacement. Under the
modern welfare state, individual rights and free enterprise are still
fundamental.
Unlike welfare statism, socialism leaves no room
for freedom. The distinction is important. Honest socialists like Robert L.
Heilbroner acknowledged long ago that socialism is utterly incompatible with personal
freedom, requiring the brutal repression not just of economic freedom (markets,
property rights), but also of political and intellectual freedom. Dissent
cannot be tolerated. “Moral commitments ... to the rights of individuals [and
the] celebration of individualism [are] directly opposed to the basic socialist
commitment to a deliberately embraced collective moral goal.” Socialism is
not a bigger welfare state. It is the complete regimentation of society
administered by the unrestrained brute force of the state. Once a government
acquires the power that socialism requires, it will not tolerate any threat to
that power.
Socialism is totalitarian by ideological design,
and in practice. The Democratic Party’s new democratic socialists will scream
their denials. But socialism’s intellectual leadership knows better. As
Heilbroner bluntly admonishes, it is a “delusion” to think “we can have a
socialist cake with bourgeois [capitalist] icing.”
In terms of protection of inalienable individual
rights, the Republican Party is a mixed bag. But the emerging metamorphosis of
the Democratic Party toward socialism is pure evil. So I hope Dunec represents
a new movement--Democrats Against Socialism. We need it.
Related Reading:
2 comments:
Robert L. Heilbroner must be the same Heilbroner who, along with Lester Thurow, co-authored the book, Economics Explained (with long sub-title), with several editions during the '80's and '99's. If so, I didn't know he was an out-and-out socialist. From reading Economics Explained, I thought he was a very thorough mixed economy liberal. This might increase my ability to judge these things.
Robert L. Heilbroner must be the same Heilbroner who, along with Lester Thurow, co-authored the book, Economics Explained (with long sub-title), with several editions during the '80's and '90's. If so, I didn't know he was an out-and-out socialist. From reading Economics Explained, I thought he was a very thorough mixed economy liberal. This might increase my ability to judge these things.
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