The rise of socialism in modern America

[Deplorable Me]

The socialist movement is getting younger and turning into a left-wing force

I've come to conclusion that the modern democratic party has become the organization of uneducated useful idiots of the socialist.

Prepare for the next ammo hoarding.

 

[Madmallard]

I always thought that the Democrap Party was actually a crime syndicate masquerading as a political party.

 

[Bigfoot]

"The rise of socialism in modern America"

What goes up, must come down... Sometimes violently brought down with no mercy...

 

[ProgSpear]

Many, MANY moons ago I got in a huge fight with my father, railing about the iniquities of life and unfairness of the world and how "liberalism" could cure many of those ills. He literally laughed at me and said that once I started paying taxes, I would change my mind. He was absolutely correct.

I think EVERYONE no matter their income source should pay something. Then they will understand.

 

[prambo]

Many, MANY moons ago I got in a huge fight with my father, railing about the iniquities of life and unfairness of the world and how "liberalism" could cure many of those ills. He literally laughed at me and said that once I started paying taxes, I would change my mind. He was absolutely correct.

I think EVERYONE no matter their income source should pay something. Then they will understand.

That's a good example, but most of these jerkweeds live in their parent's basement.

Just parasites.

 

[livingston]

Book Review of "Our Revolution" by Bernie Sanders
All socialists can agree that the present decline in living standards, the instability of life, the erosion of rights, including abortion rights, can only be addressed by a workers' government. However, to elect a government of our own, the working class needs its own mass party. Everyone who considers themselves a socialist should break with the Democrats and help build a mass socialist party of the working class. The building of such a party will transform the American working class from “a class in itself” to “a class for itself.”

Why do we not have a mass party of the working class in the US? There are many objective reasons why this has not yet happened, but there are also subjective reasons, including the policies followed by the American left. For example, since the end of World War II, the Communist Party USA and many who think capitalism can merely be reformed have stuck to their support for the Democrats. Such a policy not only helped to prevent the rise of a mass workers' party, but it led to the further decimation of the left. Today's socialists must learn from the mistakes of the past.

It is in this context that Bernie Sanders has written a new book called, Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In, which examines his campaign and sets forth a future agenda for his movement. Part 2 of his book is subtitled: An Agenda for a New America: How We Transform our Country. Unfortunately, although the book has interesting anecdotes about Bernie’s life and the 2016 campaign, it does not provide a path to genuine socialism but leaves us with status quo. There are many important questions that are left unaddressed, including obvious ones such as: What is a revolution? Which class should run society? Does the working class need its own political party? If the answer is yes, can the Democrats be this party? What can socialists do if they win elections and form the government of a city or town? What can those who want to see an end to the dictatorship of big business do to help bring this about?

Which class should run society?
Bernie gives many interesting statistics to show who runs society today. He writes that “the top one-tenth of 1% owns as much wealth as the bottom 90%” and “the six largest banks issue more than two-thirds of all credit cards and more than 35% of all mortgages. They control more than 95% of financial derivatives and hold more than 40% of all bank deposits. Their assets have almost quadrupled since the mid-1990s and are now equivalent to nearly 60% of our [US] GDP.”

Bernie also explains that the media is heavily concentrated in a few hands. He wrote that in 1983, the 50 largest media corporations controlled 90% of the media and now, only six large corporations have the same percentage control. Sanders even quotes A. J. Liebling who said, “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.”

Sanders provides many interesting anecdotes about how the media distorted coverage of the 2016 campaign. As an example, he describes that he held a town meeting on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and hundreds of people came out to his meeting. Although the national media was present for the event, not one major story about this issue was produced by the TV networks.

So what does Bernie suggest we do? He proposes a number of taxes and regulations, especially with regard to the banks. He would like to cap the size of big banks at 2% of GDP and claims that this would “break up” the ten largest banks in the country. Curiously, Sanders had no proposals for the media.

Again and again, Sanders travels down the failed path of regulating capitalism, rather than ending its rule. If reducing the size of the big banks means capitalism will have financial stability, how does he explain the bank failures in the 1890s or 1930s when banks were smaller and there were more of them? If a bank is restricted to a certain size, what would it do—refuse to do more business, as any success it has would mean an increase of its assets?

Monopolization is part of capitalism. If you break up the big banks, they will eventually find a way around the regulations or create the political power to repeal them. There is no going back to an earlier period of capitalism—that is a reactionary utopia. Sanders should call for the nationalization of these ten large banks, under democratic workers' control
Book Review of

https://www.amazon.com/Our-Revoluti...sr=8-1&keywords=socialism+book+bernie+sanders