History: 'How Did Socialism Become a Dirty Word in America?'

Source:History- U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Democratic Socialist, Socialist Republic of Vermont) The Leader of the Socialist Party in America?

Source:The New Democrat

"Before it became a dirty word, socialism was relatively popular in the United States. So, what happened? #HistoryChannel

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From History

Source:Socialist Alternative- “Movie Review: American Socialist: The Life and Times of Eugene Victor Debs”

From Wikipedia

"Eugene Victor Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and five times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States.[1] Through his presidential candidacies as well as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the United States."

Source:National Review- “Henry Wallace: Unsung Hero of the Left”

From Wikipedia

"Henry Agard Wallace (October 7, 1888 – November 18, 1965) was an American politician, journalist, and farmer who served as the 11th U.S. secretary of agriculture, the 33rd vice president of the United States, and the 10th U.S. secretary of commerce. He was also the presidential nominee of the left-wing Progressive Party in the 1948 election."

Source:AZ Quotes- Truer words have never been said: socialism and liberalism have never been the same things 

From Wikipedia

"Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 – December 19, 1968) was an American Presbyterian minister who achieved fame as a socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America."

Source:Bill Moyers- “George McGovern in 1972. (Photo courtesy of University of Houston)”

From Wikipedia

"George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American historian, author, U.S. representative, U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 presidential election."

Source:Imgur- “Bernie Sanders, Socialist (Communist) who believes this list of lies, might as well give me your second house because I do not have one, …”

From Wikipedia

"A self-described democratic socialist and progressive, Sanders supports labor rights and emphasizes reversing economic inequality.[4] He advocates for universal and single-payer healthcare, paid parental leave, as well as tuition-free tertiary education. On foreign policy, Sanders broadly supports reducing military spending, pursuing more diplomacy and international cooperation, and putting greater emphasis on labor rights and environmental concerns when negotiating international trade agreements."

The video makes it clear why the words socialist and socialism are unpopular. Everything from the end of World War I and the start of the Soviet Union with their communist revolution in Russia, to Senator Bernie Sanders and his presidential campaigns today. With the start of the Cold War with Russia after World War II and the so-called red scare, with Congress first with the House of Representatives in the late 1940s and the later with the Senate in the 1950s investigating Socialists and Communists in the U.S. Government and the rest of the country.

Before the rise of the Millennial Generation in America, when Americans thought of socialist or socialism they automatically assumed people were talking about Communists and other leftist authoritarians, wether they be in Russia or anywhere else in the world. And Americans regardless if they're on the Right or Left in America and somewhere in between tend to hate authoritarianism. Even self-described Socialists in America whether they're Bernie Sanders or others don't view themselves as Communists or other leftist authoritarians. They might have a hard time speaking ill of Communists and communism and leftist authoritarianism whether it's in Cuba or Venezuela, but they themselves are not Communists.

But when Millennials think of Socialists, they think of politicians that are going to give them a lot of free stuff ( another way of saying welfare programs ) like health care, health insurance, college, day care, etc. And take on greed in corporate America, as well as tax the rich, but not take heir property away and force them to work in work camps and other horrible places that we saw in Soviet Russia and in North Korea today. Whether you view socialist and socialism as either positive or negative, a lot of that is generational. If you grew up during the Cold War and in my case at the end of the Cold War just starting high school when the Cold War came to an end in the early 1990s, you're probably not a fan of Socialists and socialism, because you tend to think of Communists and communism. But if you weren't even born until the 1990s, when you think of Socialists and socialism, you tend to think of Europe and the social democracies there. Which is a helluva lot different from the communist states.

Communism, really was the biggest threat to America, American freedom, our individualism and individual rights in the 20th Century. And of course a lot of Americans in and out of government went too far with their anti-communism and outing people simply for having Far-Left beliefs whether they were Democratic Socialists or Communists. But the Cold War really was about liberal democracy versus communism and was a war that America, Britain, and Europe really had to win.

And because of this good people were put down and denied access in society simply because of their Far-Left beliefs to the point that American Leftists were scared as hell to ever be tabled as a Socialist ( even if they were ) for fear that being known as a Socialist could ruin their careers and lives. And preferred other political labels like liberal or progressive even though their own politics was much further left than both liberal and progressive. Which is how socialist and socialism became dirty words in America, because Americans didn't want their lives ruined simply because of their socialist politics.

The WAWG Blog: Andy Hailey- American Socialism: ‘Equally Empowers & Protecting All US Citizens’

Source:Volitairenet- A little history of socialism in America.

Source:The New Democrat

"(A cycle of building, destroying, and now renewing/expanding)
Even before FDR’s socially responsible New Deal and laws passed since, corporations and excessively wealthy individuals have been stealthily working to put our democracy in chains by neutering the Federal government, eliminating majority rule, and defunding our social programs."

From The WAWG Blog

Source:PBS NewsHour- When the Socialist Party was  a major factor in American politics.

"In other industrialized countries, movement towards a democratic form of socialism has been strong enough to win national elections. So why hasn’t socialism ever become a powerful force in American politics? There are lots of reasons, as well as younger generations who align with socialist ideals that may bring the necessary gusto. NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Jeff Greenfield reports."

From PBS NewsHour


What Andy Hailey laid out in his piece was American progressivism which the New Deal, Great Society, Eisenhower’s national infrastructure program, the civil rights law, the Nixon environmental laws. Things that Theodore Roosevelt advocated for when he was President and after his presidency, that President Woodrow Wilson also advocated for when he was President when it came to the safety net in this country.

Source:Wikipedia- Democratic Socialists of America 

I’ve blogged about this many times before, but progressivism is not the same as socialism however you define socialism. A lot of aspects of socialism are actually very regressive when you’re talking about communism or Neo-Communism that you see in Venezuela, where the national state isn’t in complete control of the country unlike in Cuba.

Progressives, believe in the private market and private enterprise, free trade, the rule of law, progressive taxation, but not universal high taxation, fiscal responsibility even,  ( President Lyndon Johnson had a balanced budget in 1968 ) but they also believe in a social insurance net for people who fall on hard times. The safety net from the Progressive, is different from the welfare state of the Socialist who says that all employee benefits should be provided for by the government, instead of employers. The Progressive, just wants public assistance programs like Unemployment for people who truly need it. Unlike the Socialist who wants welfare programs to be universal regardless of income.

Regardless of what you hear from the so-called mainstream media today when they’re talking about Congressional Democrats and other leftist Democrats that they call Progressives, whether it’s Bernie Sanders or Alexandria O. Cortez, or any other members of the so-called Congressional Progressive Caucus, these people are Socialists, not Progressives. They believe that American progressivism hasn’t gone far enough and we now need a welfare state and government big enough to take care of the people. Which is different from progressivism which advocates for a social insurance system for the people who truly need it. While at the same time we encourage Americans to be as economically independent as possible so the resources are always there for the people who truly need it.

“In other industrialized countries, movement towards a democratic form of socialism has been strong enough to win national elections. So why hasn’t socialism ever become a powerful force in American politics? There are lots of reasons, as well as younger generations who align with socialist ideals that may bring the necessary gusto. NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Jeff Greenfield reports.”

FOX Business: Bulls & Bears- David Asman: National Debt Surpasses $22 Trillion

Source:FOX Business- Our national credit card debt. 

Source:The New Democrat

“Bulls & Bears” panel on how the U.S. national debt surpassed $22 trillion and whether the drop in tax revenues will be blamed on President Trump. FOX Business Network (FBN) is a financial news channel delivering real-time information across all platforms that impact both Main Street and Wall Street. Headquartered in New York — the business capital of the world — FBN launched in October 2007 and is the leading business network on television, topping CNBC in Business Day viewers for the second consecutive year. The network is available in more than 80 million homes in all markets across the United States. Owned by FOX, FBN has bureaus in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and London."

From FOX Business

Replace Donald Trump with Barack Obama as President with 22 trillion national debt and a big tax cut from last year and have with this same panel on this show and let's hear them talk about how the national debt is not that big of a deal or a real concern. You might think that you're death trying to hear that conversation, simply because you would never hear them talking that way. Other than maybe Steve Forbes who never believed that the national debt and deficits are that big of a deal regardless of who the President is and the size of the deficit and debt, you wouldn't hear that conversation at all.

You would instead hear things like: "those tax and spend Democrats are sending America into bankruptcy and borrowing and spending America's future." The old Tea Party arguments ( and they are old ) from 2011, 12, and 13 would come back again. My whole point here is when you have a national debt that's 80-90% of your economy and it's a big deal, then the national debt is even larger than that now especially when your economy is growing at 2-3% a year and you have unemployment at less than 4%, then it's a big deal when the national debt is even bigger as it's now. The national debt and deficits knows no political parties and isn't interested in politics at all. If the national debt is a big deal, then it's a big deal regardless of which party is in power at The White House.

The only difference here is that we have a Republican President instead of a Democratic President, with Republicans feeling no political advantage whatsoever in talking about the dangers of the national debt when their party is in The White House. Which is a bad thing because the national debt was a problem during the Obama Administration and probably had some affect on the lack of economic growth in the economy, even though job growth was very solid for most of the Obama Presidency, but economic growth tended to lag behind that job growth.

But it's a bigger problem now especially with the economy growing now and with the Republican Congress and President Trump the last two years voluntarily raising the debt and deficit with new spending and tax cuts when they didn't have to, when instead they could've started paying down the deficit and moving the country towards a balanced budget. Again, the national debt doesn't know politics and political parties and is there regardless of who is in The White House and running Congress. So when politicians try to take advantage of it when they're out-of-power, it can come back to bite them once they're back in power and the national debt grows ever larger on their watch.

Mr. Beat: The American Presidential Election of 1980- John Anderson For President

Source:Mr. Beat- A 3-way presidential election?

Source:The New Democrat

"The 49th episode in a very long series about the American presidential elections from 1788 to the present. I hope to have them done by Election Day 2016. In 1980, Ronald Reagan seems unstoppable as he tries to "make America great again."

The 49th Presidential election in American history took place on November 4, 1980. As President, Jimmy Carter faced quite a few obstacles, and things just weren’t all peachy. The country faced low economic growth, high inflation and interest rates, and an energy crisis, in which the prices of oil went way up since supply went down in certain areas. This shortage was partially caused by the Iranian Revolution of 1979, in which a new Islamic government hostile to the United States overthrew the old one. "

From Mr. Beat

There are political Independents and then there are political Independents. Independents tend to get stereotyped as liberal or moderate on social issues and fiscally conservative. Which just isn't the case in a lot of if not most cases. There are Socialists who are Independents. There are Conservatives who are Independent. There are Libertarians who are Independent and I could go on. A political Independent is just someone who who is not associated with the two major political parties and in some cases not associated with any political party.

Source:Political Matters- John Anderson For President, 1980 

When Representative John Anderson from Illinois, ran for President in the general election in 1980, he ran as a political Independent, but he was a progressive-conservative Republican ideologically. And I know that sounds like jumbo shrimp, or fuel efficient SUV, a Libertarian-Socialist and I could name a tone of other terms that sound like Oxymorons and sound like they were invented by morons who don't realize that these terms don't go together.

But back in the 1970s and well before as far back as perhaps the 1940s, there was a Progressive Republican wing of the Republican Party. People who would be called progressive on social issues and believed in civil rights and commonsense regulations when it came to business, civil liberties, but who also believed in fiscal responsibility. Believed in balanced budgets and lower taxes, a strong national defense, who are anti-Communists and didn't like authoritarianism at all whether it was communist or some right-wing authoritarian ideology. Believed in the rule of law and being tough on crime.

Representative John Anderson, ran for President in 1980 as an Independent, ( meaning not as a Republican or Democrat ) but ideologically he was a progressive-conservative Republican. He was part of the Nelson Rockefeller or Dwight Eisenhower wing of the Republican. George H.W. Bush at least before he ran as Ronald Reagan's Vice President in 1980 was from this wing of the party as well. And governed this was as President himself. Ideologically he was very different from President Ronald Reagan while at the same time sharing values with President Reagan as it related to national defense, anti-communism, lower taxation, and other issues. So if you want to know where someone stands politically, don't look at their party registration, but look at their politics and what they actually believe.

History Collection: Dwight D. Eisenhower Quotes On Politics, War, and Freedom

Source:Originally from History Collections- President Dwight Eisenhower, on extremism. 

Source:The New Democrat

"Dwight D. Eisenhower (''Ike'') was one of the most prominent American presidents and US Army Generals. In this video, you can find his thoughts about warfare, American politics and government."

From History Collection

Source:Words On Images- Dwight Eisenhower, on freedom 

President Dwight D. Eisenhower: "if you want total security go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking is freedom." President Eisenhower, talking about the value of freedom, freedom of choice, personal autonomy, etc, the tools that every person every free society uses to manage their own affairs.

The only thing that is free about a free society is the freedom for individuals to make their own decisions. Everything else about a free society comes with choices, investments, even costs. To be able to do things and make your own decisions, you have to earn that buy doing other things. Like getting and education, and good job that allows you to able to take care of yourself. And those really aren't costs either, but more like investments because you get a lot of education and a good job that you're good at other than money and a good job which is knowledge that you can use in your future which either helps you at work or in other places, but with everything that you do in life.

And in any society wether it's a free society or an authoritarian society or even let's say a social democratic society where the national government attempts to eliminate as much economic risk as possible, but falls short of nationalizing the economy there's going to be some risk there. Which is why a good education is so important so the people have as much knowledge and quality information as possible to be able to make their own good decisions and investments. But even life in prison ( not that I know from personal experience ) comes with real risks and those risks generally having to do with one's physical security. Even non-violent offenders have to deal with the risk that one of their fellow inmates might actually hurt them or worst at some point.

And in any authoritarian society where both economic and personal risk is eliminated or that's what the government tries to create, there is a risk that the state might pick you up, because they see you as some threat to the regime. Cuba, Russia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia are great examples of that. So in no society and no form of life comes without personal risk. The question is how do you manage it and what decisions you make with your own life.

For me is the best form of life is a free life where people are able to make their own personal and economic decisions themselves, but are then held accountable for their own decision making for good and bad. And allow for everyone to get themselves the best education that they can so they can make the best lives for themselves as possible. As well as encourage people to get a good education, good job, earn a good living. So you have as many free people as possible in society.