"Socialism" panic is a laugh; we've been electing socialists to the WH and Congress for 35 years now

[brentspeak]

Every president from Reagan through Obama -- and most Congressional classes -- has been steadily steering the US government to both passively and forcibly redistribute as much income and wealth from the vast majority of Americans upwards to the top 20% as possible. In the past 15 years, that trend has accelerated out-of-control even further; now it's the top 5-10% which is receiving the lion's share of everyone else' money. And it is all due to federal government policy of enabling a tiny minority of insanely wealthy and unjustifiably well-connected entities to rob everyone else. The trend is so apparent now that even hard-core conservatives are finally seeing the light, realizing they've been played (they're getting poor, too).

The Great 2008 Wall St. Bailout Scam -- and make no mistake, it was a scam -- is the greatest forcible redistribution of income and assets in the history of the world, albeit upwards in direction.

This ferocious rich-man's socialism dwarfs Bernie Sanders' policy goals of universal healthcare and some free college tuition by a factor of several thousand. The great irony is that "Bernie the Socialist's" universal healthcare and free tuition would actually strengthen a capitalist economy (by preventing it from completely collapsing.)

[djean111]

1. I believe most Dems know that. "SOCIALIST!!!!!" is just being used against Bernie for campaign

purposes. By Democrats. There is no panic, but there is an attempt to create the appearance of one.

[redstateblues]

3. While that may be true, calling oneself a Socialist

will not be an plus in the GE.

[cascadiance]

4. People will start to see others trying to use it against him as the oligarch's manipulation...

... of the campaign with their big dollars to keep their bought politicians in power.

FDR was pushed by the communist party and other voices to the left when he got elected, which lead to his putting in place the New Deal and other related legislation, and this election will start to see that sentiment again. As Thom Hartmann has said way before Bernie announced his campaign over the years, things happen in 80 year cycles. We're hitting a cycle since the last big Republican Depression (which is what it was called then before it got relabeled later to not be owned by that party).

Though perhaps many of our generations now don't know what the socialist elements of politics were like then (which is what is argued why we do this in 80 year cycles), we're seeing it again due to similar circumstances we had then. And yes, there was a big backlash to that too which lead later to the McCarthy era, etc. too. So yes, I'm sure that there will be some who will try to make a big deal of Bernie's socialism, but I think that today there's a lot more receptiveness to the policies of socialism and not just be scared by people being labeled as such.

[appalachiablue]

7. 'The Fourth Turning' generational theory by Strauss & Howe is quite interesting.

Have heard Thom H. speak of it, and the 80 year defining time in Anglo-Amer. culture.

SOSHIALISM, the Horror! As in the public roads, schools, post offices, the US military. Not.
Down with free market, neoliberal privatization and greed that's killing the earth, and us!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss%E2%80%93Howe_generational_theory

[enough]

2. Also, younger generations know very little about socialism and don't have the knee-jerk

panic reaction. I don't think it's a button that can be pushed very effectively.

[PowerToThePeople]

5. Redistribution is NOT socialism

Socialism does not need any redistribution, everyone has an equal amount of resources to start with.

[deutsey]

6. Socialism's early successes in America

in the 20th century were abruptly thwarted by a pretty severe reaction after WWI.

The Palmer Raids and the first Red Scare were brutally effective in stamping out the socialism that was growing before WWI.

Despite the socialist ideas underlying the massively popular New Deal, lots of intensive propaganda, another Red Scare, McCarthyism, COINTELPRO, the Powell Memo, etc., over the ensuing decades have helped to crush it whenever it's started taking root again.

[moondust]

8. COOTIES!!!!!

Same deal. A fun way to scare the kids and keep them in line.

[Octafish]

9. Welfare for the Wealthy.

Too bad it's Buy Partisan.

For instance: Sen. Phil Gramm supported President Bill Clinton to repeal Glass-Steagall.

Now they work together at UBS in "Wealth Management." I kid you not:

http://financialservicesinc.ubs.com/revitalizingamerica/SenatorPhilGramm.html

The fractured moral of the story: Working together in Washington can be very rewarding on Wall Street.