An oversimplification. Remember, there are a lot of people who emigrated here
as poor workers and lived in slums, and because of changes in our laws which
controlled the excesses of capitalism and supported the rights of workers, they
became educated, attained professional status or success in business, lived
comfortable lives, and passed on their status to their children. They are
content in their suburban lifestyles, can afford expensive recreation and
vacations, and feel completely protected from the damage that their empire has
wrought. Only now, are some of these people beginning to feel that their status
is unstable, and their response is to blame scapegoats. It's the young folks
with education and a far leftist orientation who see what you're describing.
But if you just talk to the people around you, or you listen to some of those
folks interviews on NPR, it's terrifying.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, October 11, 2019 11:22 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: What Really Happened to American Socialism?
The problem is this, we live in America, we work in America, we conduct
ourselves under the laws of America, we speak and think as if we were
Americans, but the fact is that we are not American Citizens.
America has a Constitution that was developed by an all white, landed
Oligarchy. The laws and the rules are set in place to protect and advance the
Oligarchy. Most of us who think of ourselves as American Citizens, are not.
How many ways must we be shown that we are not the "People" spoken of in the
Constitution? We have been shown to be the cannon fodder, fueling the
Corporate Wars. We are the cheap labor source that runs the day to day
business of the Oligarchy. And we are also the financial supporters who pay to
allow the Ruling Class their lives of luxury and safe comfort. And, if that
were not enough, we also are the ones who bare the blame when the Ruling Class
extend their greed beyond the limits. At best we are left twisting in the
wind, turning against our own people simply because our Masters have told us
that Black is Evil, that non Christian is wicked, that speaking out in protest
is Treason. The Masters have concocted a fake Middle Class in which they could
hide much of their wealth. Then they used that Middle Class to turn against
the Working Class. And finally the Ruling Class sucked back its wealth from
the Middle Class, deflating it and leaving it in shambles.
And still, too many of us fall prey to the tootling of their Pied Pipers,
dancing and singing as they cry out for some Savior to keep them from harm.
And the Pipers deliver them to Donald Trump! And many of the disenfranchised
people believe that Donald Trump is their Savior.
Well, that is a sad ending, but like the changing weather it is already in the
works, and may be too late to do much about it.
Carl Jarvis, the pessimistic optimist...or am I an Optimistic Pessimist?
On 10/11/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
What Really Happened to American Socialism?
By Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News
10 October 19
Despite the corporate hype, Democratic Socialism and Social Democracy
are deeply rooted in the mainstream of our nation's history.
The lie that they're "foreign ideologies" starts with the fascist
assault Woodrow Wilson waged against them during and after World War 1.
Their marginalization today by corporate Democrats and Trump
Republicans is itself profoundly un-American.
Here's the reality (as explained in greater length in my new People's
Spiral of US History):
In the decades after the Civil War, Robber Baron corporations captured
the core of the American economy. Led by J.P. Morgan and John
Rockefeller, they pushed family farmers and urban workers deep into the
depths of poverty.
In the West and South, agrarian activists formed the People's
(Populist) Party to demand public control over the monopoly capitalist
forces that were destroying their lives. Their socialistic platforms
demanded democratic rule over the money supply, banks, railroads,
telecommunications, and much more.
They wanted female suffrage, direct election of senators, referendum
and recall.
But in 1896, the Populists were sabotaged by wimp Democrat William
Jennings Bryan, who begged their support, then back-stabbed them in a
presidential election he lost (of course) to the corporate Republican,
William McKinley.
Soon thereafter, the great labor leader Eugene V. Debs became an
outspoken socialist. Debs had formed the American Railway Union and
led a great 1895 national rail strike that shut the nation. He was
jailed by President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat he'd previously
supported.
While imprisoned in Woodstock, Illinois, Debs renounced corporate
capitalism. He called instead for an economic system owned and
operated by America's working people. The means of production would be
socialized for the good of the public, he said. All citizens would be
guaranteed a decent living, including food, housing, education,
medical care and more. "I am for Socialism," he said, "because I am
for humanity."
Amiable, charismatic and incorruptible, the tall, slim, Indiana-born
Debs gathered a huge national following. Tens of millions of Americans
accepted Debsian Socialism as a legitimate part of the national
dialogue. The party elected hundreds of local officials throughout the
country, including many mayors and two US Representatives. Millions -
including many conservatives
-
assumed (especially while Gene was around) the US might someday have a
Socialist president.
Thousands flocked to Debs's speeches on a moment's notice. Dubbed "the
American Saint," he demanded an egalitarian grassroots democracy that
extended deep into the realm of material wellbeing. Gene's American
Socialist Party renounced dictatorship of any kind and sustained a far
deeper commitment to the Bill of Rights than either the Republicans or
the Democrats.
The American Socialist Party strongly opposed American Empire. It
fought all-out against Woodrow Wilson's plunge into World War 1. In
1916 Wilson had run for re-election as a "peace candidate." Then he
jumped in to save the British and French, who owed Morgan and
Rockefeller huge sums of money.
To defend his hugely unpopular imperial war, Wilson shredded the
Constitution. He jailed thousands of Socialists and peace activists
merely for speaking out. He imprisoned Debs for demanding peace in a
legendary speech at Canton, Ohio.
Wilson's attorney general, A. Mitchell Palmer, then ran Gestapo-style
Red Scare raids that killed, maimed, and jailed the leadership of the
Socialist and radical labor movements. Federal marshals trashed
Socialist headquarters, burned union offices, broke warrantless into
private homes, and terrorized, beat, and imprisoned anyone suspected
of a trace of leftism.
Not until Mussolini and Hitler's storm troopers took Italy and Germany
was there a more brutal putsch anywhere in the West.
Wilson's assault thrilled Samuel Gompers, head of the American
Federation of Labor. Gompers saw Debs as his chief rival for
leadership of the union movement. His AFofL embraced capitalism and
empire, and banned blacks, women, immigrants, and the unskilled.
In concert with Gompers and the Robber Barons, Wilson destroyed the
American Socialist Party and what had been the mainstream acceptance
of sharing the wealth as a legitimate alternative to corporate
domination. His ruling elite chose instead a form of what Theodore
Roosevelt called "national socialism."
Dominant corporations claimed to love a capitalist free market but
were always on the take for public handouts and massive bailouts.
Conquering an empire came with the "patriotic" territory.
Through the next century, Socialist ideals were kept alive by the
likes of Norman Thomas, Dorothy Day, and Michael Harrington. Imperial
Democrat/Republicans (and the corporate media) still relentlessly
brand as "unAmerican" the view that our human community should be
guaranteed the basics of life, and that our nation should not be
conquering other countries. With an iron fist, the two parties and
their talking heads have smeared democratic socialism and social
democracy to keep it out of the mainstream dialogue.
Bernie Sanders has revived much of Debs's ideology and excitement. He
generally stops short of calling for public ownership of the means of
production. But Bernie embraces Gene's deep commitment to Social
Democracy and a system based on human justice, grassroots equality,
and No Nukes ecological harmony.
In the 2016 primaries, despite underhanded sabotage from the corporate
Democrat elite, Bernie got more than a dozen times as many votes as
the (severely undercounted) million Gene officially got during his
peak runs in
1912 and 1920 (when he ran from federal prison).
In the face of outright fascism and corporate corruption, it's time to
reclaim the legitimate mainstream acceptance of American Socialism.
The idea that our citizenry is entitled to ownership of our nation's
core economic institutions is as American as apple pie. So is
opposition to empire and a deep, abiding commitment to real grassroots
social democracy.
Both Democratic Socialism and Social Democracy are American made.
Accept no substitutes.
Write Harvey Wasserman for THE PEOPLE'S SPIRAL OF US HISTORY: FROM
DEGANAWIDAH TO SOLARTOPIA via solartopia@xxxxxxxxx. His California
Solartopia Show airs at KPFK/Pacific 90.7 fm in Los Angeles; Green
Power & Wellness is podcast at prn.fm.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work.
Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
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