CNN : What is democratic socialism, American-style?

[FourScore]

Fri Nov 06, 2015 at 04:17 AM PST
CNN : What is democratic socialism, American-style?
by dkmich

I have absolutely nothing to add to this CNN article by Peter Dreier other than read it. It has some great pictures of the US from earlier days, and it IS the commercial Bernie Sanders should make.

Below the squiggle is a fair use quote to introduce this well written and historical look at democratic socialialism in America. At the end, follow the link and read the whole thing. Whether you are a Bernie Sanders supporter, history buff, or just reality based, you will find this article a great read.

Now that Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign is generating lots of media attention, the word "socialism" is in the news. But few Americans know what it is or what Sanders means when he describes himself as a "democratic socialist."

In the early 1900s, socialists led the movements for women's suffrage, child labor laws, consumer protection laws and the progressive income tax. In 1916, Victor Berger, a socialist congressman from Milwaukee, sponsored the first bill to create "old age pensions." The bill didn't get very far, but two decades later, in the midst of the Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt persuaded Congress to enact Social Security. Even then, some critics denounced it as un-American. But today, most Americans, even conservatives, believe that Social Security is a good idea. What had once seemed radical has become common sense.

Much of FDR's other New Deal legislation -- the minimum wage, workers' right to form unions and public works programs to create jobs for the unemployed -- was first espoused by American socialists.

Socialists were in the forefront of the civil rights movement from the founding of the NAACP in 1909 through the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Socialists have long pushed for a universal health insurance plan, which helped create the momentum for stepping-stone measures such as Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s and Obamacare today.

In the 1890s, a socialist Baptist minister, Francis Bellamy, wrote "The Pledge of Allegiance" and a socialist poet, Katherine Lee Bates, penned "America the Beautiful." Throughout our history, some of the nation's most influential activists and thinkers, such as Jane Addams, John Dewey, Helen Keller, W.E.B. DuBois, Albert Einstein, A. Philip Randolph, Walter Reuther, Martin Luther King, Eugene V. Debs, and Gloria Steinem, embraced democratic socialism.

Is democratic socialism the right path for America?
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/27/opinions/dreier-democratic-socialism/index.html

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/11/06/1445555/-CNN-What-is-democratic-socialism-American-style

[RoccoR5955]

1. "Socialist" Eugene Debs ran for president in 1920

He got more than a million votes... And he was in jail!
Socialism is VERY MUCH American!
It's about caring for WE THE PEOPLE.
It got vilified after WWII, and it has been that way since.
About time it changed!

[merrily]

2. I don't consider the Pledge of Allegiance a plus. It puts the flag before the nation. Aside from

that, when I started to look into Democratic Socialism, it became clearer that I should probably refer to myself as a Democratic Socialist, as should most Americans.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12779483