Democratic Socialists? Democrats Not Half That Good - by Bob Fitrakis

[kpete]

Published on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 by The Free Press
Democratic Socialists? Democrats Not Half That Good

by Bob Fitrakis

The Republican National Committee recently dropped its resolution to brand the moderate pro-corporate Democratic Party “Socialists.” As the late, great Democratic Socialist leader Michael Harrington liked to tell it when he testified before a dying Senator Hubert Humphrey on the Humphrey-Hawkins Work Bill, that would theoretically guarantee every American a right to a job, Humphrey bluntly asked him “Is my bill socialism?” Harrington replied, “Senator, your bill’s not half that good.”

Here’s why the Democratic Party is also not half that good. Obama’s “Me too” bailout policy to the largest and most irresponsible banks and investment houses has nothing to do with socializing capital. Democratic Socialists believe in democratizing and socializing money matters. They favor credit unions and co-ops with democratically elected boards over large welfare checks to transnational corporations. In fact, there’s little difference between Obama’s approach to the big bankers and George W. Bush’s.

If the Democrats were European Democratic Socialists or Social Democrats, they would have never allowed 20% of all U.S. workers and 47 million people in the U.S. to live without health care. They would have at least called for a general strike to shut down the system until the injustice was stopped.

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more at:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/26-10

[Mythsaje]

1. I identified myself yesterday as a "Social Democrat."

A breed not usually found in these United States.

[blindpig]

2. And let me add that 'democratic socialist'are pretty useless too.

As most if not all of them are committed to keeping capitalism around or delude themselves that it can be phased out.

They resist all efforts at regulation and will not go quietly into the night.