Back Talk: Democratic Socialists reveal latest platform
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By Pamela Permar-Shierling
I was watching Fox News this morning and heard a brief discussion about the Democratic Socialists of America’s (DSA) platform.
To me their platform is ludicrous and frightening.
The platform is called “Workers Deserve More” and aims to shift power into the hands of the working class and away from corporations.
The platform also calls for:
• extending full voting rights to people with criminal convictions and noncitizens
• replacing the Electoral College with a national popular vote for president
• replacing the two-party system with a multi-party democracy
• expanding the House and abolishing the Senate.
Co-Chair of the DSA, Ashik Siddique, told C-SPAN this week, “We just don’t see the point of the Senate. Historically, it was meant to serve very wealthy people who owned a lot of land and that’s still a system that we have today and it’s something we would change.”
History states that the U.S. Senate was created so that smaller states would have a voice. The Senate was created to balance power between large and small states; provide equal representation regardless of population, and protect minority viewpoints. Seats in the House of Representatives are based on population.
We are so busy protecting DSA’s minority viewpoints that we are in serious danger of losing our country.
From the New York Times – what it means to be a DSA member: universal health care, taxing the wealthy and opposition to military aid to Israel are among the movement’s key tenets.
As for shifting power to the working class; what would the working class do with it?
If the working class had what it takes to be a corporate entity, they would already be doing that.
Follow my logic here. I’m not saying the working class is stupid. I am saying they don’t want to work hard enough or have the know-how to run a successful business. We need worker bees. There’s only one queen in the hive.
I am more than happy to let someone else run the risk and work the long hours. Their reward is greater than mine. That is fine by me. It is very fair.
So – still following? – after the DSA ruins the corporations with taxation and blatant takeovers, here comes the working class. Only they don’t know what to do. So the DSA, which finally achieves its goal, steps up and boom they have what they wanted all along – money and power.
Only I don’t think there will be much money left and what is left will be so devalued as to be worthless.
Those who are successful businessmen and women will most likely leave the country for elsewhere that treats business more favorably.
With them will go the money and jobs. Then what working class? Will you step up or will you sit and whine that no one is taking care of you?
I’m am sure that the working class would not be allowed to step up. The DSA believes government can solve all problems and they are more than happy to tell the working class what to do and how and when to do it.
They also believe in abolishing private property as in private property that generates revenue, the means of production.
They believe in a system where no one has to worry about a mortgage and you only have to work as much as you are able.
Stop right there. Do they know nothing about human nature? I’m going to be real angry if I work harder and smarter than you and get paid the same salary.
This will cause me to slow down my work production. Can you see that eventually nothing will get produced if we are all working only as much as we are able?
And who determines how much I am able to work? I assume the government will determine that. And you know how I hate to be told what to do. So I’ll quit and let the all knowing government take care of me.
Multiply that attitude by all the worker bees in the country.
Where does that leave us in terms of goods and services? Yep – nowhere.
And of course let’s defund the military. That’s another recent proposal of the DSA.
Look at their website. It’s seductive. It’s tailor made for lazy people.
You know the old saying about the first generation works hard and makes the money but stupidly shields their children from their struggles; the second generation lacks the experience to increase the wealth; the third generation squanders the wealth.
Americans have headed down that same type of path regarding work ethic.
People who were adults during World War II worked very hard. Parents tried hard to make sure we had everything we needed and to some extent wanted.
The next generation – my generation gave their children everything. It appears no one was expected to work for anything. The biggest thing that comes to mind is cars. My brothers and I bought our own cars. We were not given cars. Ride by Glynn Academy or Brunswick High on any given day and look at the new $65,000 and up vehicles sitting in the parking lots.
Maybe some were gotten with work earnings but I suspect most were gifts from indulgent parents.
(I sound like my grandmother who thought we were terribly spoiled.)
The younger generations are now very entitled. They believe they are owed everything. This is what the DSA panders to. Not only are you owed all this wonderful stuff but you don’t have to go to work. You cannot do enough for them. And I have bitten my tongue watching parents and grandparents trying to please them.
I know this scenario doesn’t apply to everyone but it appears to apply to enough people otherwise how are so many Democratic Socialists getting elected?
Remember the DSA is an activist organization, so its members typically run as Democrats. Frankly the Democrats need to stand up and disagree vehemently with all that these people are proposing.
Emmett Barnes always told me “shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations.”