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It’s time to give socialism a try
WAPO ^ | March 6, 2018 | Elizabeth Bruenig

Posted on 03/07/2018 6:54:05 AM PST by PROCON

In the United States, we’ve arrived at a pair of mutually exclusive convictions: that liberal, capitalist democracies are guaranteed by their nature to succeed and that in our Trumpist moment they seem to be failing in deeply unsettling ways. For liberals — and by this I mean inheritors of the long liberal tradition, not specifically those who might also be called progressives — efforts to square these two notions have typically combined expressions of high anxiety with reassurances that, if we only have the right attitude, everything will set itself aright.

Hanging on and hoping for the best is certainly one approach to rescuing the best of liberalism from its discontents, but my answer is admittedly more ambitious: It’s time to give socialism a try.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Government
KEYWORDS: liberalism; sedition; socialism
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To: PROCON

Suggest they move to Cuba,Zimbabwe, South Africa, Venezuela for an actual case study.


61 posted on 03/07/2018 7:36:00 AM PST by ealgeone
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To: PROCON

Stupid and ignorant comment. It has be tried and is being tried and is and has always been a failure. Some people can never get over being stupid.


62 posted on 03/07/2018 7:37:32 AM PST by mulligan (The)
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To: PROCON
"decommodifying labor"

What the hell does she mean by that? It sounds like labor would no longer be something undertaken between employer and worker, but doled out by the state on its own terms.
63 posted on 03/07/2018 7:39:29 AM PST by Steve_Seattle
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To: PROCON

It means you can’t fix stupid!!!!


64 posted on 03/07/2018 7:40:27 AM PST by ontap
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To: PROCON
I would support a kind of socialism that would be democratic and aimed primarily at decommodifying labor, reducing the vast inequality brought about by capitalism, and breaking capital’s stranglehold over politics and culture.

secular humanists have been calling for democratic socialism since the first humanist manifesto in 1933

65 posted on 03/07/2018 7:41:06 AM PST by mjp ((pro-{God, reality, reason, egoism, individualism, natural rights, limited government, capitalism}))
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To: JPJones
"She’s basically saying: Everyone should get paid the same, everyone should think the same."

No, she's saying that WE the grateful peasants will all be paid the same and given the same kind of tenement and the same euthanasia, but she and other members of the elite will get more of everything.
66 posted on 03/07/2018 7:42:04 AM PST by Steve_Seattle
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To: Yaelle
Not to be confused for a totalitarian nostalgist, I would support a kind of socialism that would be democratic and aimed primarily at decommodifying labor, reducing the vast inequality brought about by capitalism, and breaking capital’s stranglehold over politics and culture.

That is the line that I was going to comment on too. We have two choices with "commodifying" labor: people can voluntarily pay individuals to work, while those individuals voluntarily work for the pay offered, or a socialist government (or equivalent slave owner) can use force to compel individuals to work as ordered for the amount they are told to accept.

I like freedom, so I absolutely reject socialism. I will not survive that transition in our country - live free or die. This is not something where a vote to "try socialism" would be legitimate. This is something where the all too likely eventual vote for socialism will require extreme government/union/thug force to compel all normal, productive people to serve the ever-growing parasite class that always appears to leech off those who are foolish and weak enough to serve as slaves.

67 posted on 03/07/2018 7:46:18 AM PST by Pollster1 ("Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed")
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To: catnipman
" . . . well, at least WaPoo isn’t pretending any longer ..."

That's been the big change in the past several years. They now pretty much admit that they hate the Constitution, hate the US, hate national sovereignty, hate Christianity, hate free speech, support world government, and want to punish and/or kill anyone who stands in their way.
68 posted on 03/07/2018 7:46:28 AM PST by Steve_Seattle
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To: Steve_Seattle
" . . . well, at least WaPoo isn’t pretending any longer ..."

They need to move and become the Caracas Post

69 posted on 03/07/2018 7:51:33 AM PST by redcatcherb412 (Emerged intact.)
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To: ClearCase_guy
We’ve been down this road about a million times.

And socialism has taken the lives of many, many more times that.

70 posted on 03/07/2018 7:55:15 AM PST by Ciaphas Cain (Progressives don't care about quality. Progressives only care about appearances.)
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To: Uncle Miltie

Over half of young Venezuelans want to flee as economy collapses, poll finds

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/06/young-venezuelans-want-to-flee-as-economy-collapses-poll-finds


71 posted on 03/07/2018 8:00:54 AM PST by Kartographer ("We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.")
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To: PROCON

There’s already too much socialism here.

70% fed budget on social spending.

Social security, medicare, progressive tax rates, to name the most obvious.


72 posted on 03/07/2018 8:01:14 AM PST by fruser1
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To: ClearCase_guy

The classic — “They didn’t do it right last time. We have better people now, so it will certainly succeed if we give it another chance.”


What they really mean is:
— We are somehow “smarter” than all those really “dumb” people who tried Socialism before
— This country has a lot more $$ and potential victims than other Socialist paradises
— We don’t care how many times it failed. We really, really want absolute power. And we want it now, regardless of the consequences.


73 posted on 03/07/2018 8:06:03 AM PST by rbg81 (Truth is stranger than fiction)
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To: Menehune56
Appears Ms. Elizabeth Bruenig is the Washington Post’s millennial opinion writer. I’m not impressed so far.

Only a "millennial" could write an entire article about how it's "time to give socialism a try" without using the words "Soviet" or "communism."

Their defining characteristic seems to be that they are too young to remember the Cold War and too self-absorbed to learn history.
74 posted on 03/07/2018 8:08:51 AM PST by The Pack Knight
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To: PROCON

Socialism is Communism by election.


75 posted on 03/07/2018 8:12:13 AM PST by right way right (May we remain sober over mere men, for God really is our one and only true hope.)
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To: Kid Shelleen

She should tell her boss that he should sell all his Amazon stock and distribute it evenly between all Americans.


76 posted on 03/07/2018 8:16:04 AM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Steve_Seattle
"Decommodifying labor" is an idea straight out of the 60s. The 1860s, that is.

Where would we be without such fresh, forward-looking ideas from today's youth?
77 posted on 03/07/2018 8:18:44 AM PST by The Pack Knight
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To: PROCON

By all means, lets try a discredited 19th century idea responsible for the deaths of over 100 million people.

“Capitalism,” as they call it, has only lifted billions of people out of poverty and serfdom, increased life expectancies by decades, and allowed most of the world’s people to achieve a standard of living once reserved for aristocrats. Clearly, it’s time for a change.


78 posted on 03/07/2018 8:27:21 AM PST by The Pack Knight
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To: DuncanWaring
"She should tell her boss that he should sell all his Amazon stock and distribute it evenly between all Americans."

Or, as leftists are prone to do, she should kill him and move into his mansion. That's a leftist's idea of social justice. Envy is the underlying principle.
79 posted on 03/07/2018 8:30:11 AM PST by Steve_Seattle
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To: TomGuy

A New Republic author guesting at the WaPo strikes a new low.

However, her idiocy in commonplace and often commented on by others.

http://www.returnofkings.com/60799/is-elizabeth-stoker-bruenig-single-handedly-destroying-the-new-republic


80 posted on 03/07/2018 8:31:51 AM PST by KC Burke (If all the world is a stage, I would like to request my lighting be adjusted.)
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