Socialism!

[Editorial]

The Republicans can’t say it enough times and the Democrats wave it like a banner. SOCIALISM!

So what is socialism? The classic definition is:

socialism

noun

: a way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people and companies.

Okay, many Democrats are labeling themselves as socialist, and many more people do not have the foggiest idea what socialism is.

Trump is throwing out the communism and socialism insults because most people don’t know what they mean. However, what the right labels as socialist are programs like the laws used to bust up the monopolies of the 1890s.

We saw “socialism” under the New Deal with programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and many other programs. We saw the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the Social Security Administration (SSA), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and many other programs.

Then we had the rash of agencies created under the Johnson administration like HUD, Head Start, and the EEOC, the momentum that even bled over into the Nixon administration with programs and agencies like OSHA, the EPA, WIC, and SNAP (Food Stamps back then).

These are the programs the Republicans are calling “socialist,” but they look the other way when Trump orders the government to buy private businesses, as the Council on Foreign Relations reported…

Washington’s latest and boldest experiment in industrial policy is a renewed willingness to take equity stakes. Since January 2025, the U.S. government has announced investments worth $27.6 billion across thirty-seven deals involving direct ownership, broadening a toolkit that has traditionally focused on grants, loans, and tax incentives. The Department of Commerce leads the way with twenty four announced deals, including taking a 10 percent stake in Intel. The Development Finance Corporation, the United States’ development bank, has pledged six equity transactions in critical minerals, energy, and infrastructure. The Department of Defense has disclosed seven deals, and the Department of Energy has participated in two.

That is the definition of “socialism” see above!

Meanwhile, Trump is cutting the programs created back in the Johnson administration to pay for his tax cuts for the billionaires and his endless war!

So who’s the real “socialist”?

[/Editorial]

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I have company at the cottage this week so I might miss a few posts.