Failed GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum called all five Democrats participating in the debate last week “socialists.” So what? Less than five percent of our nation’s people benefit from capitalism; what about the rest of us?
Who should we vote for; someone who will care for the great majority, or a party which bows to its owners; the wealthiest of our residents? Special interests have had their day, it’s time for the rest of us to have a better quality of life.
Sadly poorly educated people such as Donald Trump equate all forms of socialism with communism. He called Bernie Sanders just that, and once again adds another measure of proof that he knows nothing about everything.
Bernie Sanders believes in a form of ‘democratic socialism.’ The definition of this ideology is “a political ideology advocating a democratic political system alongside a socialist economic system, involving a combination of political democracy (usually multi-party democracy) with social ownership of the means of production.”
This would deny the huge corporations from keeping all of the profits for their executives, and force them to share with those who actually do the work.
Before I was forced to retire in 2008, after 46 years of working for others, I never thought about how unfairly I was often treated by my employers. I worked in multiple industries for companies both big and small. The one thing I now know is that I was not paid fairly for my efforts, and my benefits were minimal at best.
Today the situation is far worse than before the great recession. An increasing income inequality has allowed one-percent of our nation’s people to live lives of privilege and luxury, while the working class struggles to maintain the status quo. Corporations took advantage of the recession to rehire employees at a lower rate of pay and many on a part time basis to reduce the cost of benefits.
Politicians on one side of the aisle are owned by large corporations, and they have no concern for the plight of the majority of our nation’s people. We are now living in an oligarchy, and soon it will become a plutocracy unless drastic changes are made. John Adams, our second president, said that democracy has a limited life; obviously he was correct.
Rick Santorum has absolutely no chance of becoming his party’s nominee. Why he doesn’t withdraw, I have no idea. He and Mike Huckabee consider their religious beliefs more important than the future of our nation. They want to institute Christianity as our national religion and void the first amendment. Although both men are Christian in name only, they continue to use it as their basis for existence. Judgement, hatred, and the denial of human rights eliminate their claim to be Christian.
Although it is improbable that Bernie Sanders will become our next president, do not discount the truth. The Independent Senator from Vermont is 100 percent correct about our nation and the changes which must come if we are to survive under the ideals of our founding fathers.
Our government must represent all of our nation’s people. Washington must cease to be concerned about the few and once again represent the majority.
Op-Ed
By James Turnage
Photo Courtesy of DonkeyHotey
The Truth With No Restrictions 
Spot on. One thing I’ve noticed is this incessant attempt to brand things detrimental to the interest of 1% as “socialist” regardless of whether that policy is or not, because (in the view of the establishment) socialism is an evil and sinister force. But here’s the thing: socialism isn’t bad, if one looks at it propagators, theorists, writers etc.; its aim being to improve the world for all of humankind and the methods through which that can be achieved. When one studies the horrors of the twentieth century, especially the wars in Europe, one realises the conditions which created the basis for those horrors was the undermining by the capitalist class of the working-class’ struggle for socialism. This allowed a rise of reactionary fascism in Italy, Spain (where a socialist revolution was crushed by fascists), Germany (another socialist revolution crushed in 1919, allowing NAZIS to murder their way to power) and a Stalinist bureaucratic nightmare in Russia (a betrayal of the bolshevik revolution, where old socialist revolutionaries where executed, tortured, exiled and imprisoned for challenging Stalins dictatorship, which was propped by the West). One need only read non-biased history books. But this history isn’t often conveyed by mainstream media etc. It’s much easier for the establishment to eschew actual analysis and say “socialism has failed” or “is evil” or “denies freedom” and other such rubbish. Enjoyed your post – keep it up!
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