Recent successes of DSA candidates in NYC primaries have right-wing publications, pundits, podcasters, and politicians (including Trump} clutching their pearls and warning of the imminent takeover of the Democratic party by “communists.”
Three points:
(1) Although campaign money is national these days, issues and therefore politics are still local. DSA
candidates’ success in other places is open to question.
2) Under communism, the state controls and directs the means of production. The only current politician that advocates buying shares and controlling corporations is Donald Trump, who has spent 10 billion taxpayer
dollars for stakes in steel, semiconductor chips, etc.
(3) The GOP has worked hard to equate social safety net programs with “socialism” and “communism” in people’s minds.
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In the 50s and 60s when communism was a real threat, Republicans supported expansion of Social Security
and workers’ unemployment and retirement benefits; collective bargaining and worker-safety regulation; and expansive health insurance, i.e., they supported safety net programs. The GOP has traveled far from these principles since then.
Barbara Hall
Midtown
Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.
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