Government is Socialism

[RobertEarl]

It sure isn't capitalism.

It isn't a business.

It isn't meant to make people rich.

Government is by the people and for the people.

It gets corrupted by capitalists who use it to become rich.
Just look at congress and its corruption.

The best things in the US are owned by the people. We have a government to manage our holdings, and socialists in government are always the best managers of the peoples' properties.

That is why Bernie is going to make a great president. He's not wanting to be president for the money, he is in the race for the best social outcome possible.

[leftofcool]

1. Which holdings and properties are you referring to?

If you are talking about social security, absolutely I agree. If you are talking about taxes, I agree. If you are talking about personal property, accounts, money holdings, money accounts, I can not agree with the government taking over my holdings or accounts. I want what I have worked and paid for to be mine and not controlled by anyone other than me. But I agree with most of your post.

[RobertEarl]

3. Your bank accounts?

Protected by socialism. Nearly all holdings and accounts are protected by the government.

The Securities Exchange Commission is a government organization put there to protect security exchanges from crooks. We had capitalists in charge for years and look what happened to the NYSE. Now we have a socialist - Obama - as a manager, and things have gotten a whole lot better.

As for properties held by the people the main properties are roads. If the people did not build and own the roads this country would not be what it is and you could be charged a toll every time you left your yard.

[HereSince1628]

2. Government of the people, by the people, for the people

Is basically a restatement of Rousseau's thesis of 1762 found in "Du contrat social ou Principes du droit politique"

which I think can be interpreted as the social contract, or principles of correct politics

It is a thesis that promotes the concept of Republic as a form of ideal progressive governance.

I rather suspect that many of the Founding Fathers were aware of this work, and it's importance, by the time of the writing of the Constitution.

The goal of coming into community is to gain strength to protect the people from the brutality of human nature and to raise up the entire community. The social contract that exists is the people's agreement to hand the day-to-day burdern of governance over to a small group of people dedicated to achieving the goals of the people...seeing that the people are protected from the darker side of human nature and managing community development to raise up everyone.

Of course to do that there must be regulations and enforcement of regulations that protect the people from the selfish and exploitative nature of their fellow citizens. Which requires regulations/law and levies to support governance and public enterprises that benefit all.

The Kochs and anti-government Republicans with their desire to reduce levies to zero, reduce regulations to control exploitative human nature are positioned completely against the concept of the ideal Republic and it's interest in the common good.

[RobertEarl]

4. That's the basis

To really simplify this situation:

We are the hens in the hen house.

Allowing the capitalists to run our hen house is like appointing the fox to take care of us.

[RobertEarl]

5. Bernie calls himself a democratic socialist

It is up to us to define exactly what democratic socialist means. Because we are going to get that asked of us, a lot.

That question will also be on tv, radio and in print. We better get the meaning of democratic socialist condensed down to a sound bite, or an elevator speech. And do it soon.