Positions series, Pt. 2: Democratic Socialism

I consider myself a democratic socialist. This means that while I believe strongly in the right of the people to freely elect their representatives and that the principles of the Constitution of the United States are sound and reasonable; I also believe that the government has the responsibility to provide services and a standard of living to its citizens. It should do this by ensuring that any American who wants to work can, by providing financial assistant to those who can’t, providing universal health care, ensuring a quality k-12 education, and providing those who want to go on to college with the ability to do so. I also believe in distribution of wealth through tax breaks to low income and middle class families and tax increases to big business and wealthy citizens.

There is this ingrained idea in American society that Socialism is a bad thing. I imagine this stems from the cold war and America's history of being anti-communism. I understand that, communism is a great idea in principle. The big problem with it, is it will never work. Communism fails to take into account the innate fallibility of human nature. Unfortunately, there will always be greed, and lust for power. Democratic socialism however, is NOT communism. The American constitution is the most revolutionary document in relation to government in the last 500 years. It is extraordinary. We can protect and practice the tenets of constitutional democracy and support socialist ideals. Many people would have you think that a socialist world can only be this sort of Orwellien, state controlled big brother type of society. I think this attitude is motivated entirely by fear, fear of change, fear of the unknown. The thing is, government can provide services that improve the lives of it's citizens without stripping their freedoms and rights as people. The biggest issue with making this system work, is that we as a nation need to learn to work with, not against one another. We have to get over this idea that the fastest way to the top is on the backs of everyone else. We must embrace the idea that the best way to get ahead in life, as people, and as a nation, is to come together to build a better future.

-Brad