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Democratic Socialists of America Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free _Mother Jones Daily_. I’ve been curious for a while about just
what a democratic socialist really is. An FDR liberal on steroids? A Swedish style social democrat? I’m not very clear about this. Meagan Day clears things up for me: > Here’s the truth:
In the long run, DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS WANT TO > END CAPITALISM. And we want to do that by pursuing a reform agenda > today in an effort to revive a politics focused on class
hierarchy > and inequality in the United States. The eventual goal is to > TRANSFORM THE WORLD TO PROMOTE EVERYONE’S NEEDS RATHER THAN TO > PRODUCE MASSIVE PROFITS FOR A SMALL
HANDFUL OF CITIZENS. Tell me more: > The mid-20th century in the United States featured many elements of > social democracy, at least for the majority of white workers….BUT > THE
RICH MOVED QUICKLY TO THROW ALL THAT OUT THE WINDOW AS SOON AS > THEY COULD GET AWAY WITH IT….As a result, a handful of bosses > became wealthier and more powerful while wages
stagnated and quality > of life eroded for everyone else. > > ….Our goal is not to rein in the excesses of capitalism for a few > decades at a time — WE WANT TO END OUR
SOCIETY’S SUBSERVIENCE TO > THE MARKET. Medicare-for-all is an instructive example. Winning > single-payer health care in the US would be an enormous relief to > the millions of
Americans who, even with insurance, find themselves > stymied by claims denials and crushed by medical debt….But we also > know that Medicare-for-all is not socialism. It would only
> nationalize insurance, not the whole health care > system….DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS ULTIMATELY WANT SOMETHING MORE LIKE > THE BRITISH NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE (NHS), IN WHICH EVERYONE
PAYS > TAXES TO FUND NOT JUST INSURANCE BUT DOCTORS AND HOSPITALS AND > MEDICINE AS WELL. THIS WOULD GIVE US THE OPPORTUNITY TO DESIGN A > SYSTEM THAT BENEFITS EVERY ONE OF US, NOT
A FEW PHARMACEUTICAL AND > HOSPITAL NETWORK EXECUTIVES. > > ….Of course, even socializing a whole industry like medicine > wouldn’t automatically lead to the socializing of
others. BUT > THROUGH THE PROCESS OF THE CAMPAIGN, DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS WANT TO > BUILD INTO THE POPULAR CONSCIOUSNESS AN AWARENESS THAT THE MARKET IS > NOT CAPABLE OF MEETING
SOCIETY’S NEEDS….In fighting for > Medicare-for-all, people will inevitably start asking basic > questions like why corporations are allowed to get rich off of > something that
should be a basic human right….FIGHTING FOR > MEDICARE-FOR-ALL CAN TEACH AMERICANS THE VALUE OF UNITING OVER THE > WORKING-CLASS MAJORITY’S INTERESTS. Winning Medicare-for-all would
> free up the labor movement to make more demands on employers, like > greater democratic control on the job. > > ….That’s why when democratic socialists choose reforms to rally
> behind, we favor battles with the potential to transform ordinary > people’s lives for the better and TEACH MILLIONS OF PEOPLE THE > VALUE OF UNITING TO FIGHT THE CAPITALIST
GOLIATHS CURRENTLY IN > CHARGE OF OUR SOCIETY. So democratic socialism is just…socialism. But Americans have to be taught the virtues of socialism first before we can get there, and the
way to do that is (a) fight for Medicare for All, (b) fight for fully socialized medicine, (c) fight to socialize the rest of the commanding heights of the economy. As a strategy, this is
certainly the classic way of doing things unless you can engineer a revolution of some kind. But I do have one question left: plenty of other rich countries have tried this before, and
eventually they’ve all given up because it doesn’t work as well as social democracy or some other form of mixed capitalism. So why will things be different this time?