Democratic Socialism

We have become obsessed with the outlier. Strange and outrageous behavior by one individual has become generalized to be representative of large groups. So one lunatic cop is representative of all cops. And those cops are representative of all society. The wide generalization from small experiences to large populations is a virtual definition of bigotry.

                          Democratic Socialism

The phrase "democratic socialism"  mixes two entities, a governing system and an economic one. But the freedom of the vote in no way bleeds into any freedom in the economic system. It is at best a misunderstanding, at worst malicious marketing.

Once the tribe voted for the war chief, individual decision-making was gone. So voting for socialism displaces a lot of the decision-making, by definition. It's not necessarily an oxymoron but rather the decision changes the political landscape. In a strange way, individual freedom stops at the ballot box. That's what happens to democracies in wartime. The outrage over the internment of the Japanese in WW11 misunderstands this fundamental change.

"Democracy" implies "virtue" to our arrogant minds. It is not. It is a simple way of deciding which, in the American example, is ingenious--but only because of the guardrails created by its founders. (Imagine the current politicians trying to sit down with any of those men in revolutionary Philadelphia.)  Hitler was elected.

Here is some of something I forget the origin of:

"Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and other contemporary American advocates of democratic socialism lean heavily on the democratic part, which is at least in part a matter of marketing.


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In the United States, we use the word “democratic” as though it were a synonym for “decent” or “accountable,” but 51 percent of the people can wreck a country just as easily and as thoroughly as 10 percent of them. That is why the United States has a Bill of Rights and other limitations on democratic power.


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The destructive nature of socialism comes not from its tendency to trample on democracy (though socialism often does trample on democracy) but from its total disregard for rights — rights that are, in the context of the United States and other liberal-democratic systems, beyond the reach of mere majorities. We have the Bill of Rights to protect freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the free exercise of religion, etc., not because we expect that majorities will reliably support and protect these rights but because we expect that majorities will be hostile to them." (from somewhere) 

Doing this by vote is neither right nor good any more than voting to sack Canada is. Socialism is a silly idea but it not made any less silly--or given any more dignity--by voting for it.