"Obama wants to establish a very powerful socialist, authoritarian government... what Obama is doing is cruel. What the Democrat Party has done is cruel, cruelty in the guise of compassion." -Rush Limbaugh
Contrary to what sweaty, verbose, twisted, bombastic Neo-con windbags such as Rush Limbaugh sputter - "socialism" in America is dead. The bogeyman Limbaugh and company keep trying to inflate to frighten Joe & Jane America is an illusion of Potemkin proportions. Only true idiot villagers see it as a "threat." In fact, the only air in the sails of "socialism" today actually comes from the gaseous emissions the far-right is constantly trying to blow up its long dead ass. And no matter how hard they try to resurrect "Socialism" as a whipping-boy of convenience, it will not float.
Long ago, during the nadir of the Great Depression, America's socialists traded their dogma in for the pragmatic promise of progress. At the periphery of the political process ever since, today's socialists pose no threat to American capitalism: capitalists do. As the Washington Post's Harold Meyerson has aptly observed, US socialists were lured by FDR into trading in their fundamental guiding principles for a chance at partaking in the promise of the New Deal. According to Meyerson, the shift conformed perfectly to the theories of German socialist Eduard Bernstien "who argued that the immediate struggle to humanize capitalism through the instruments of democratic government was everything, and that the goal of supplanting capitalism altogether was meaningless".
Meyerson pegs the US Socialist Party's 1936 decision to endorse FDR's New Deal as the moment when American Socialism abandoned its core beliefs. Since then, in the perverse dance known as US politics, socialists have become little more than the acne riddled policy geeks who can't get the elitist Belle of the Ball to dance with them. Out of tune and out of step with the electorate, they operate solely on the political fringe. The GOP's fear mongering notwithstanding: Today's US Democrats are to socialism, as George W. Bush was to deep thought: both unfamiliar and unacquainted.
In Canada, our 'socialists' long ago found themselves morphing into watered down 'new democrats'. Content to rest on their ancestral laurels and the myths associated with the fight for Medicare; today's NDP is lost. More interested in high profile shenanigans than in presenting voters with a truly alternative political vision; the NDP vainly continues to try and make deals with a status-quo devil their ideological forefathers would have rejected out-of-hand. Opportunists in the true Bernstien-ian sense, Canada's NDP Party perfectly exemplifies Meyerson's point - in North America, socialism is dead.
Socialism is sooo yesterday because its proponents are afraid to speak plainly and take the steps necessary to advocate for the ideology's true principles: nationalization of major industries; and the abolition of the usury speculative fiscal marketplace that props up an economic elite that preys on the poor. In Canada, this has led to the NDP becoming a weirdly-wired and sadly predictable political party destined to remain inconsequential to the debate over true reform. Here, as in the US, voices in support of true socialist ideals are rare, muted and marginalized. Fated to remain largely absent from the coming debate over how we restructure capitalism in the wake of the present crisis. That is a pity.
Better Canada's NDP admit now that they will never win federal power. Better, instead, that it commit itself to a radical new take-no-prisoners political action plan. One designed to exert as much pressure as possible on the sitting government to bring forth real and meaningful social and economic reform. One that pushes the boundaries of acceptable political discourse in this country. One that fervently lobbies for the kind of economic reforms needed to protect us from the very same political status-quo the NDP are constantly trying to appease. Otherwise, nothing will change. Usury capitalism will secure new concessions from the state that see it re-emerge unrepentant and unbowed; and at the end of the day... still in control.
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Sadly, that was very good article. As a Socialist (and New Democrat) I want to see a new vision but would probably find it very difficult to convince the grassroots. I still believe that the NDP can be a driving force behind progressive policy that benefits the 90% that own the 10% of wealth and not the other way around like the other parties.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure socialism is dead, it's just mortally wounded by the capitalist juggernaut that is in itself dying a rapid death. But unlike capitalism, socialism just continues to bleed due to it not wanting to appear greedy by asking for help. Capitalism just pushes to the front of line and demands care, lest it perish. As long as it's on the taxpayers dime. Socialism does however strive when we start discussing private profit loss. Privatize the profit, socialize the losses.
@Finn,
ReplyDeleteNot sure the federal NDP party is the right vehicle to deliver the message that needs to be sent?
Seems to me they are saddled with a leader who is too content to keep playing the reactionary political PR game. Obviously, the Con government (when events warrant) must be criticized at every turn. But braying willy-nilly against every action Harper takes gets tiresome if the self-anointed whiner hasn't even bothered to spell out a cogent, consistent and crystal-clear alternative.
Today's NDP cannot continue to try to be everything to every poor 'anti-this/pro-that' soul 24/7. It must first redefine its core guiding principles. It must stop jumping on every peripheral opportunistic news-cycle driven bandwagon. It must offer up a narrative that speaks to its core values and openly eschews crass opportunism. It must conserve its energies, stay on message, and dedicate itself to changing the Canadian mindset (yes, I do mean consciousness). Even if most Canadians disagree with this new message, it must be seen to be an honest broker whose subsequent actions ring true with dissenters as a faithful representation of the party's real goals. Finally, and here's the kicker - it must stop making false claims that it will soon form the government. Instead, it must seek to position itself, as did Woodsworth, as the legitimate conscience of Parliament - and really mean it! Even if it means it will lose some of its seats. Come hell or high water, it must accept these initial losses as the price of speaking social truth to political power.
Patience and focus is needed. But I fear the present NDP exhibits none of the former and, regarding the latter, that it has ADHD. Until the NDP can settle on who it is [a third voice?], what it represents [pragmatic socialism?] and why it exists [to agitate for true reform?]; it is doomed to keep pissing in the wind.
Of course, I been known to be wrong before - and would love to be proved wrong in this case! But I'm not optimistic ...