Is socialism now acceptable in the US?

[Lodestar]

This brings up some questions about Bernie supporters' views on 'socialism' and how much that plays into his popularity, or even if it matters that much. This author seems to conclude it doesn't...not strictly speaking at least. They just want SOMETHING new that works for everyone:

WASHINGTON • It used to be that socialism was a dirty word in the United States and conjured up images of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez or the brutal dictatorship of Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union.

The word "socialist" has also been used as an insult against US President Barack Obama, while the healthcare reform known as Obamacare has been condemned as "socialised medicine".

It is thus mind-boggling that someone who is a self-avowed "Democratic Socialist" is now giving former secretary of state Hillary Clinton an almighty run for her money in the race to be the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.

cont'd

http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/is-socialism-now-acceptable-in-the-us

[highprincipleswork]

1. What a game for MORANS!

[lapfog_1]

2. Try running on a platform that promises

to end SOCIAL Security and Medicare plus the VA.

all socialist programs.

[Festivito]

3. We start to realize that we already have socialism -- for the rich.

But, what we have has become UN-democratic.

We were redistributing wealth from the upper middle, middle and poor all to the rich and ultra-rich.

And, the more we allowed it to happen, the less chance we had at getting democracy back.

[They_Live]

7. + 1000

[Chan790]

4. More than the support of Wall Street.

I like Bernie, I truly respect the man...but he made a mistake early. He didn't come out of the gate attacking Clinton for the traitor to the Democratic core-constituencies that she really, truly is...because he believed we need the coalition to secure the GE. We really don't. If progressives had secured the nomination for Sanders, the majority of center-right Clintonites would have been forced to fall in line by their antipathy to the further right.

If he'd made this primary a referendum on choosing who the Democratic party represents between Wall Street and Main Street and gone after Clinton from day-one as a quisling of the money-interests of the GOP, this would be a Clintonless race.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

5. I don't think it's mind-boggling at all.

I think BECAUSE it's been thrown as an insult against pretty much every Democrat out there, that for most Americans nowadays, it's just considered an alternative word for Democrat.

[Zen Democrat]

6. We've had socialism since FDR. His Veep Henry Wallace was a committed Socialist.

FDR was for keeping Wallace in 1944, but party insiders knowing that Roosevelt was terminally ill, forced Truman on the convention floor and ousted Henry Wallace. This brought on the atomic bomb and the Cold War.

We'd have been much smarter to have stayed with the socialists. Now is the time for American redemption.