Posted on 02/22/2019 11:47:35 PM PST by DeathBeforeDishonor1
Ugo Okere, a Democratic candidate for Chicago city council, said Thursday he believes democratic socialism should have total control over how people live.
In a Thursday interview with the left-wing Jacobin, Okere was asked to define democratic socialism, and he gave a remarkably expansive answer.
"Democratic socialism, to me, is about democratic control of every single facet of our life," he said. "Government is led by the people, not by big corporations, not by multibillionaires, and working people actually have control over who we elect to be our politicians, over how elections work, and over how our government is structured. People have the power."
Okere went on to say he believes socialism should guide a society's entire course, not just its political structures:
Democratic socialism even extends to our relationships and how we treat each other. [It looks] at the world through a socialist-feminist lens, in how we treat people who are black, who are brown, who are femme, who are non-binary, who are gender-nonconforming, and who are working class.
To me, we’ll have achieved democratic socialism not when there is no conflict in the world, but when our societies are not governed based on power, but are governed based on the mutual understanding that everybody deserves a decent and quality life.
This socialist vision of society seeks to overturn the existing order and should not be confused with the mainstream progressive left, Okere explained.
"One part of the Left wants to reform the existing society that we have now. They want to make changes that will make life easier, that will make life not so bad," he said. "But there’s another side of the Left that wants to radically transform the way the world works — not simply say that we can make some changes here and there and that things will be alright."
Okere has received the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America, which backs such progressive leaders as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.). He faces incumbent Alderman Patrick O’Connor, who has been in office since 1983, as well as three other candidates. Although it's a tough race, Okere said he's happy enough just to be spreading socialist ideology.
"This campaign is literally making socialists, and I’m proud of that," he said.
This won’t last 5 years before the guns are drawn.
They won’t leave anyone not them alone.
Yeah, and he’s got a dumbass name too.
Ugo?
Get a real name.
Call it what it is....communism
Yugo!
Another immigrant success story/sarc
They want zombies?
Socialism is about raw power—who has it and who does not.
The rest is rhetoric.
>> Ugo Okere
Yet another asshole justifying the 2nd Amendment.
To the Wash. Times writer, stop using the word “socialism” or “progressive(ism)” unless the person being quoted uses it.
This acceptance of the Marxists use of the terms “democratic socialism”, “socialism” and ‘progressives’ allows them to determine the tone and context of the conversation, not the author.
Sanders is a hard core communist (not just a Marxist, socialist, progressive, democratic socialist, or Jacobin (which means absolutely nothing to 99/999% of Americans.
AOC is a communist but the dumbest one I’ve heard in decades. She spouts the red line but has no idea what it means or how stupid it sounds to sane people.
Call her “Marxist-lite” if you will. People will understand.
Sen. Warren is not a progressive. She’s a mentally ill, egocentric commie fraud. She has more “ideological red” in her than “native American Red”, yet the media keeps giving her the benefit of controlling the conversation.
A skunk is a skunk even if someone paints its white stripe blue, purple, brown, or rainbow.
A Red is a Red is a Red no matter what they call themselves. At least this nut in Chicago is telling the truth in his own terms. I just did some transliteration.
Exactly. And communism is the purification.
“Democratic socialism, to me, is about democratic control of every single facet of our life,”
Bring it, beyotch.
Bring it.
L
Or as Benito Mussolini put it: “Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state”.
Wow, this guy is a clueless idiot.
He thinks that a democratic socialist government would be “societies are not governed based on power”? Sorry buddy but you are dreaming of something that can never be. A democratic socialist government requires pretty much absolute power so that it can enforce totalitarian rules on people.
I would love to ask him if he would like to have a council of Baptist ministers telling him how to live his life? Democracy can give him the opportunity. Hey, you can’t dance, play cards, gamble or drink beer.
The majority of voters elected a bunch of Baptist ministers to government and these are the new rules.
Oh, and get ready for this pal.
We passed a new constitution by a simple majority vote and you are going to tithe 10% to the Baptist church like it or not.
This is what democracy looks like! It controls every aspect of your life by majority vote.
“Ugo Okere, a Democratic candidate for Chicago city” council,
what have we become??????????
What street thugs and socialists don't yet comprehend is that the drug industry is just another example of free market capitalism. It just happens to be on the other side of the law.
Tell the cartels and drug distribution networks that the government is going to control their business model.
There will be blood.
This guy is an idiot but that goes without saying. Governing by definition is the exercise of power. That is why people who prefer freedom to tyranny want to limit the size of government. Free choice and free markets are the way to minimize the exercise of power in society. In a market, our interactions are based on voluntary cooperation. The only real power I have in my dealings with you is the power to walk away, and vice versa.
“..people actually have control over who we elect to be our politicians”
We do, you think any elitist actually voted for Trump? They all wanted Hillary and her high-priced influence that none of us can afford.
In my case that's more of a lack of talent than anyone telling me I can't do it. :-)
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