An exercise I’d like some of these motherfuckers to do:
Create two lists, side by side. One of them is the bad things done by Stalinism, and the other is, wait for it, the good things done by Stalinism. I’m okay if your “good list” is blank.
It gets worse. Do the same thing, except for Nazism. “Blank good list” is okay here, too.
Make two more sets of lists, this time for 20th-century US capitalism, and for 20th-century Scandinavian socialism.
Go down these lists. Beside every act on each list, if the DSA’s official platform advocates for it, write “DSA.” If Mamdani has implemented it, write “M”. If the GOP official platform advocates for it, write “GOP.” If Trump has implemented (or attempted to implement) it, write “T”.
My prediction: there’s not going to be a lot of DSA or M on the bad lists. There’s going to be a lot of GOP and T on the bad lists.
What do you think the DSA wants that’s different than “Nordic style Social Democracy”? Medicare for All would be less socialist than the Scandinavian health care model.
The problem isn’t “Medicare for all”, which all civilized countries have – the problem is that they also want medical training to be free (along with free college education for all, and all student debt cancelled).
They also want to abolish the Electoral College (a good idea) and the US Senate (not a good idea). They’re not just pushing for higher taxes for the wealthy (again, a good thing) but essentially want to abolish the whole capitalist system altogether. They’re also intensely focused on defunding the prison and policing systems.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with left-wing extremists trying to influence the policies of a political party. The problem is that Republicans, who have become expert habitual liars over the years, immediately represent these extremists as mainstream, and self-serving blowhards like Bill Maher amplify the lies.
FTR, there’s a really fundamental difference between democratic socialism (which is what the DSA purports to represent, and I’ve highlighted the key word here) and social democracy of the type found in Scandinavian countries and, to a large extent, in Australia, Britain, and Canada. If that’s what you’re referring to, it’s far more than some abstract semantic distinction.
The former (represented by the DSA) seeks to fundamentally reform or entirely replace capitalism with some sort of publicly-run economy (think Soviet Union) while the latter seeks reasonable regulation of capitalism along with strong social services including universal health care that’s entirely free of individual financial constraints. To many Americans, this sounds like “socialism” (or even “communism”). To Canadians and the British, it sounds like everyday life in a civilized country.
More semantics. The American right call them socialist. Similarly, the DSA does not want to outlaw private ownership, small business, etc. Looking at the issues, DSA policies are much, much closer to the Scandinavian model than the Soviet model.
As to what extent the DSA want the police and prison systems defunded, that’s above my pay grade to ascertain, but I kinda like the idea of some semblance of law enforcement and incarceration (the latter, though, badly in need of having its mushrooming growth, all over the country, sharply curtailed).
EDIT - though some of these posts, like this one, could be getting non-Bill-like.
Maher complained he’s one of the “regular rich people” who somehow can’t take advantage of any tax loopholes.
And in calculating that “almost 60%” of his $10 million annual income goes to taxes, he threw in sales tax, fees and Obamacare along with federal, state, local and property taxes.
How’s an honest pundit supposed to survive with a net worth of just $140 million?
Shrug. I didn’t take Maher’s comments as him being angry about how much he pays in taxes. He’s said more than once that he’s fine with paying taxes; he just wants the government to spend the money more efficiently.
To me, his point was more about fixing the tax code, so billionaires stop getting away with paying almost nothing. On that part, I agree with him.
