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By Rosa Shields
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Feb. 11, 2009 |
“We’re going to fight for Joe, my friends, we’re going to fight for him, ” Senator John McCain proclaimed on the campaign trail. This was one of the many references McCain made to “Joe the Plumber,” whom he portrayed as the voice for all hard-working Americans, when in reality he is an unlicensed plumber from Holland, Ohio.
The McCain-Palin campaign used Joe the Plumber’s concerns about president-elect Barack Obama’s tax plan to run a smear campaign, mercilessly denouncing Obama as a socialist. The right wing called Obama’s healthcare policy and tax plan as “something like socialism,” repeatedly referencing “Joe the Plumber’s” concerns as a cruel propaganda campaign against any proposal which would advocate government support for Americans.
Not only were the charges against Obama being a socialist false — as Obama’s policies do not pledge to completely redistribute the wealth, nor do they support financial equality for all — but politicians are morally deficient to use the term socialism as an insult. A politician should be proud to endorse policies that offer government support for the American people or the redistribution of extreme wealth to benefit all.
The fact that supporting universal health care, free public education and fair taxes on the rich — which are all fundamentally socialistic ideas — is criticized in a politician is reprehensible. After all, these same goals are commonly used indicators of the quality of life in developed countries. Republicans have not only given socialism a negative connotation, but one that is utterly inaccurate.
So with these unjust accusations flying, Americans must educate themselves on the concept of socialism before choosing to shun it.
During the Cold War, Americans were taught by influential politicians, such as Senator Joe McCarthy, to fear socialism and to hate the dirty “S” word. After World War II, those who supported or even sympathized with communism or socialism were persecuted by fellow Americans. Socialism was touted as the path to an intrusive, Stalin-like government — which many associate with brutal killings — despite the fact that it has been proven successful in our own history. President Roosevelt successfully used socialistic policies to alleviate the country’s economic suffering in the Unites States during the Great Depression when he began the prosperous New Deal Program — similar to Obama’s plans to create five million green jobs and promote economic prosperity.
Socialism has also been triumphant in other countries. According to the World Health Organization, Cuba — which boasts a socialist government — has one of the most uniquely effective healthcare systems in the world, despite its status as an underdeveloped country. In a 2005 Mortality Health Status study, the WHO reported that the infant mortality rate in Cuba is five out of every 1,000 births, which is lower even than that of the United States.
Regardless of this clear evidence of the prosperity possible in a socialistic government, the right-wing has relentlessly projected a negative Cold War image onto socialist governments and liberal socialist programs.
As we struggle through a huge debt and the sharp downturn of a painful economic recession, it is time for Americans to expand their horizons and learn about a concept that could be exactly what we currently need.
Ironically, the rich have used socialist concepts to achieve success. Currently, huge Wall Street firms have gone bankrupt, only to be bailed out by nearly a trillion dollars of tax payers’ money, yet the idea of redistributing the wealth to benefit ordinary hard-working people is cited as somehow being unfair, even anti-American.
The hypocrisy of the rich has forced Democrats to shy from the term socialism, catering to ignorant Americans. The dominant philosophy of unregulated capitalism in the United States has led us into trillions of dollars of debt. So before one denounces socialism, it would be wise to understand its socially progressive ideals that could be the answer to our serious economic problems.
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