Socialist America

Does the very idea of socialism make your skin crawl?  Does the very word incite you to anger and make you want to shout "Never in America!".  Do you believe that President Obama is a socialist and that he is attempting to drag this country into a socialist model?  


If either of the first two are true then you need to seek help immediately before proceeding to read the rest of this post.  If only the third statement is true, then you need some political education, which I will attempt to provide at a very basic level. 


Now a few more questions to ask yourself before we proceed.  Do you support the current form of government in America?  Do you think our way of life and our political and social systems and values are worth defending against all enemies? Do you consider yourself patriotic?  Do you know all the words to at least two songs about America, such as America the Beautiful or the Star Spangled Banner?


If even one of these is true then I have some important and shocking news for you - you're a socialist.  More importantly - America is a socialist country.  (I can already hear the screams of "not true!, not true!" echoing from the sacred ramparts).  But it is true and always has been true and always will be true. We, my fellow Americans, are a bunch of socialists living in a socialist nation.


Republicans, who regularly hurl this label at anyone who disagrees with their supposed "Market-driven", capitalist approach to pretty much everything, are simply in blind denial.  In fact, the Republican party, which has been undergoing a tidal wave of political philosophical change in the last few decades, are almost entirely responsible for the current popular hatred of anyone and anything socialistic. But (to quote a famous former Republican candidate), they're wrong.


The current predominant Republican core value to which you must subscribe in order to be a "good" Republican is that socialism is bad and capitalism is good.  In the Republican mindset somehow these two concepts have become incompatible if not polar opposites. Which is, of course, completely wrong.


In reality socialism and capitalism have only a minor and very weak relationship.  They are neither polar opposites nor particularly incomparable.  How can that be? How can the two most antagonistic political philosophies of the twentieth century not be in direct conflict with each other?


Because rather than being at odds, they can actually be fully supportive of each other.  They have to be.  Otherwise, the United States of America would not exist as we know it today.  Because in the US of A, socialism is part of the American way.  Just as free, open-market capitalism is.


Taken together, these two political concepts form the backbone of America. Unless of course you're a Republican and can't use the "S" word.  In which case there is only capitalism and this other black-hole like thing that is everything else that is not capitalism.


The truth is that the dictionary definition of socialism tends to take you to the ultimate extreme form of the concept.  But in reality society could not function   without some of the basics of socialism. Take taxation for example.  In a purely capitalist society taxation could not exist because it is unquestionably redistribution of wealth.


Consider the definition of taxation from American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (Third Edition): A government's practice of collecting money from citizens and businesses within its domain to support its operations. 


The "operations" of the American government include building roads, schools, parks, hospitals, armies, police forces as well as providing, to a varying degree, for its destitute citizens.


We all know and accept that the government taxes its citizens and uses these funds for the broad benefit of everyone (at least theoretically). A very basic socialistic process.  


There is also no denying the ongoing controversy surrounding taxation.  A controversy that has existed since the formation of our system of government and a controversy that will go on without end as long as this and all the other similar political systems in the world persist.  This is as it should be.


But (and its a very big but), money that goes from my earnings, my wages, my profits to the government coffers which in turn is used to the benefit of any other person - is indisputably socialism. It is redistribution of wealth - plain and simple.  One of the most basic tenets of socialism by any definition.


The real argument then is how much socialism and not at all conversely - how much capitalism?  Because, obviously enough, the two necessarily coexist in our political system.