Boy, was I wrong about that. I had too much confidence in the voters, especially conservatives. I'm not conservative, never have been for that matter, but I taught American History and Civics for almost 20 years at the high school level and I thought that even conservatives could see the phony veneer and the lack of substance and the mental dysfunction and the lack of any kind of moral compass in Trump. I thought more people were paying attention, when they weren't.
What fascinates me about this whole political era we've entered is just how ignorant and stupid people can be. Trump created a phony image of himself, and when he said, "I could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and nothing would be done about it," he knew his audience well. The people I have seen since he's been elected who get interviewed at his rallies and at other MAGA gatherings are bottomlessly naive and pathetically stupid. They have absolutely no idea who this guy is or what he has done. They worship an image.
It's hard for those who work in the news media to avoid the charge of bias when it comes to the Trump supporters they choose to interview at his rallies. Most of those who get picked to do interviews are pathetic in their ignorance and stupidity. They have no idea what Trump is doing or what he really stands for, and they are unwilling to accept the truth, claiming that it is "made up by the liberals." It's hard to find someone in the MAGA crowd who actually pays attention to what is happening and knows the truth. The two issues around which they focus are both based on lies.
One is that Trump has ended the Democratic party policy of "open borders." While it is true that under Democratic administrations, more immigrants have been admitted to the United States, a country with vast resources and wealth that can easily accommodate them, "open borders" has never been the policy or practice of Democrats. In fact, it took the policy and practice of the Obama Administration to stop the flow of illegal border crossings that were going on because the Bush Administration cut the Border Patrol and immigration enforcement abilities of the government and gave the cut money to billionaires. Look it up, stupid.
The other is that there is massive voter fraud in elections. This easily provable lie has prompted the wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars chasing fraud that just doesn't exist. Every investigative effort they have put forward has ended with the same conclusion: Ballot counts in the United States are impeccably accurate and Trump lost the 2020 election. Every audit of ballots either ordered or forced by right wing extremists turned up exactly the same results, that the ballot counts were accurate, down to the last vote and in every instance, including the embarassingly ridiculous "Cyber Ninja" conspiracy theorists in Arizona, the conclusion was the same, that there not only was no "massive voter fraud," but that when a state certifies its vote total, it is accurate to within a single ballot, and that the most secure and fraud-free way to vote is by mail.
Many of them built their personal loyalty to and opinion of Trump because they heard it from their pastor in the pulpit at church. There is some deliberate deception going on there. I've learned from experience, growing up in a Southern Baptist church, that it is a fact that 90% of the men in those pulpits are power-hungry sycophants who love to exercize authority and control, and aspire to being big shots like the loudmouthed Al Mohler, a typical Southern Baptist opportunist. They want to control everything, including telling their church members how to vote, based on their own perspective, and they are able to do so by distorting and deliberately misinterpreting the Biblical text to their own benefit politically.
So when Trump tries to equate Democratic Socialism with Communism, it is one of two possible things. Either he is stupid, ignorant and doesn't know what he is talking about, or he is counting on his followers to be ignorant, stupid and uninformed so they'll buy his lies. No politician in American history has ever believed his own supporters to be as ignorant and stupid as Trump believes his MAGA supporters to be.
So Exactly What is Democratic Socialism and What Does it Do?
Anyone who willingly participates in Social Security and Medicare is taking advantage of a program established by Democratic socialism. Are you opposed to Democratic Socialism? Then why don't you voluntarily give up your participation in these two programs which are socialist to the core? And if you want an example of just how well Democratic Socialism works, the fact of the matter is that the vast majority of Americans who reach retirement age are dependent on Social Security for their retirement income, rather than on a private pension plan purchased through their employer.
Private enterprise in capitalism sees pension benefits as a "cost" that hinders profit margins. And private insurance, which is one of the most profitable businesses in the country, won't cut into its profit margin to pay the additional medical expenses that occur as people get older. Medicare is proof that a single-payer, government administered insurance plan will work well, because Medicare works well.
Do you fly when you travel? Do you realize that your personal safety on that plane is the direct result of Democratic Socialism? From the air traffic controllers who keep the plane safe and help avoid deadly collisions to the people who clean the bathrooms in the airport, to the management and operation of the airport itself, right down to the land purchase and construction, is an example of socialism at work?
Millions of Americans board a bus or train to get to work each day. Public transportation systems are heavily subsidized, for reasons which benefit all of the people. And every time you get in your car, you are participating in the Democratic Socialism that constructed the roads, highways and bridges you drive on. If you don't believe in Democratic Socialism, then why don't you walk to work?
Over 90% of Americans send their children out the door to school nine months out of the year and participate in one of the largest Democratic Socialist programs in the country, known as the public education system. That's right. And in spite of all of the complaining and caterwauling that goes on from the far right over the content of the curriculum and instruction, the fact of the matter is that, state by state, those which invest more money in public education have far better schools than those in conservative states who see public education as the place to cut budgets to give tax breaks to the wealthy. And the overall prosperity of the citizens of that state is better, because if the education system works, so does capitalism and private enterprise which benefits from employees who have better basic skills.
If you've ever walked through the historic district of places like Alexandria, Virginia, you would notice a plaque on the front of many of the houses with the symbol of the local fire department. At one time, if you wanted the fire department to respond to a fire at your house, you paid them a monthly fee to be available. If your house caught fire, and you didn't make this payment, they would respond, but only to keep the flames from spreading to the houses of those who subscribed to their service. Of course, Democratic Socialism finally interfered, and public funding of police protection and fire protection turned out to be a much better way to prevent crime and private property.
In places where private business has determined that it cannot make a profit, unless the government picks up the slack, people wind up having to bear the cost and inconvenience that is caused. For example, there are places in the urban neighborhoods of cities all across the country that have become "grocery deserts" because the cost of infrastructure combined with populations that are, for the most part living in poverty, make it unprofitable to operate. I say this with a note of sarcasm, because it's not so much the lack of profit, but the lack of sizeable profit, and the almost total ownership of the grocery business by a few large monopolies that causes this problem.
So, a couple of "socialist" ideas are popping up to make it possible for people who live in some of these places not to have to travel long distances to buy food for their families. One is that municipal government is providing infrastructure for a grocery store to operate in a facility where the cost is taken care of by the city, to reduce the overhead and lower grocery costs. Some municipalities operate the stores on a non-profit basis, so that the prices are reasonable, and cover costs of operation without generating a profit. And of course, subsidies to purchase food, in the form of food stamps or vouchers, which are the main reason 25% of the school aged children in this prosperous country where food is abundant, are not starving. School subsidized meals are also a Democratic Socialist initiative to prevent malnutrition and starvation in a country that wastes more food than some countries consume.
The Affordable Care Act, passed under the Obama Adminstration with much caterwauling and complaining by Republicans who want nothing more than to subsidize billionares and redistribute wealth into their pockets, not only allowed millions of Americans to purchase health insurance that they could not afford before, but also saved programs like medicaid billions of dollars. This is basically insurance "at cost," allowing people access to basic medical care they did not have before, because of the high cost of insurance on the profit and commercial market.
Democratic Socialism Makes Life Better for All Americans
You'd think that, in a society in which some Americans claim is "Christian," the church would be the great equalizer. Christianity's core doctrines include the belief that greed is sinful, and it values a simplicity over extravagance. The rich and wealthy were frequent targets of Jesus' wrath and disdain, because of the oppression they used to make themselves rich at the expense of others. And I think it is quite possible, in the United States today, to consider it as fact that oppression, in the form of overcharging for goods and services to make a buck, is the direct result of almost unregulated capitalism.
But it's not the churches that stand against greed. The only weapon the average American has is the various levels of government. And in the hands of conservative Republicans, the government is an agent for the redistribution of wealth, from the hands of those whose labor builds corporations into success, and into the pockets of the wealthiest 1%. It's the Democratic Socialists who see the government protecting the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness found as a core America value in the Declaration of Independence.
I agree with the conservative grievance that those who work for a living should keep more of what they earn. But what needs to be understood is that the taxes you pay now provide the budgets for things that you could not afford if they didn't. If tax dollars didn't provide an education, what American could afford an additional $16,000 a year per child to pay for it? If the cost of airport operations and air traffic security was included in your plane ticket, most Americans couldn't afford to fly. Nor could you afford the tolls on the roads, since you would have to pay them for every stretch of street and road that you covered.
For example, the amount of tax you pay that goes to education is far less than the cost per individual student, because everyone shares in it. Likewise, what Democratic Socialists are proposing is not an overhaul of the capitalist system that we've had for the whole of our existence, just overhauling those things where profiteering is rampant, greed governs the prices rather than supply and demand, and profit is the motivation for leaving communities without goods and services.
Democratic socialism is, in fact, the diametric opposite of communism, though Trump throws around the term like he knows what he is talking about. Clearly, he doesn't. He doesn't know enough about anything, in fact, to be a competent President. He has helped transfer wealth out of your pocket and into those of the wealthiest Americans, while grifting money for himself, which is a violation of the law that Republicans, who despise the law, are allowing.
He's the problem, not Democratic Socialism.
