Clinton's Wall Street Backers Hate Socialism And Say They'll Desert To Bloomberg If Hillary Loses. Real Democrats Won't

Yesterday's Salon post by Gary Legum, Bad news for the GOP: America isn’t scared of Bernie’s "socialism", emphasizes that the Republican Party has spent generations raving about the dangers of socialism but that it isn't working anymore." He talks about how the socialism smear Republicans used against Bill Clinton and against Obama had had the net effect of denuding the word "socialism," boy-who-cried-wolf-wise, "of the negative associations that scares the crap out of Fox News viewers. Polling over the last few years has shown Americans are much more receptive to some of what socialism has to offer and will not wet themselves in fear when they hear the word. This is particularly true of younger people who were in grade school when the Soviet Union collapsed. In 2011, a Pew Research Center poll found that 49 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds had a positive view of socialism. Considering the enthusiasm of that age group for Bernie Sanders, it seems safe to assume that number has at the very least remained stable, if not gone up... [A]fter decades of flat-out lying about the leftism of Democratic administrations (Bill Clinton was so centrist in some of his policies that some liberals will refuse to vote for his wife a decade and a half after he left office), the Republicans finally have a real-life 60s activist with a long history of arguing notably leftist policies to run against. And they could face him in a general election at a time when crying 'socialism' will likely scare a far smaller percentage of American voters than it has in a hundred years."

No American president since Lincoln has been as beloved as Franklin Roosevelt-- and no American president since Lincoln has been as violently attacked by conservatives as Franklin Roosevelt. The Establishment never gave up calling FDR-- as well as Eleanor Roosevelt-- a socialist. In 1932 Roosevelt beat incumbent Republican Herbert Hoover with 472 electoral votes to Hoover's 59. Hoover only won 6 states. Once FDR got into office he started pushing his agenda of democratic socialism and the Republican Party and other rightists screamed "Socialism!" from the rooftops. Four years later, Kansas Governor Alf Landon was the GOP anti-socialism candidate and he lost Kansas and every other state but two. FDR won 523 electoral votes to Landon's 8. Roosevelt went from winning 57.4% of the vote in 1932 to 60.8% in 1936. In 1940, Roosevelt ran for an unprecedented third term and with the GOP still screaming "Socialist," he won 38 states and 449 electoral votes to Wendell Willkie's 82 electoral votes and 10 states. Four years later the GOP put up Thomas Dewey and just kept screaming "socialism." FDR's 432 electoral votes and 36 states seemed to prove to everyone-- but Republicans-- that "socialism" was as disliked as Republicans are.



At the 1936 Democratic convention FDR made an acceptance speech that is worth reading through as Americans decide if they want to elect a reactionary, which is what the Republicans are, or a conservative like establishment candidate Hillary Clinton or progressive Bernie Sanders. FDR knew exactly how to take on Wall Street and Big Business and the American people embraced him for it-- gigantically.

It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. In its service new mercenaries sought to regiment the people, their labor, and their property. And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man.

...Against economic tyranny such as this, the American citizen could appeal only to the organized power of government. The collapse of 1929 showed up the despotism for what it was. The election of 1932 was the people's mandate to end it. Under that mandate it is being ended.

The royalists of the economic order have conceded that political freedom was the business of the government, but they have maintained that economic slavery was nobody's business. They granted that the government could protect the citizen in his right to vote, but they denied that the government could do anything to protect the citizen in his right to work and his right to live.

...The brave and clear platform adopted by this convention, to which I heartily subscribe, sets forth that government in a modern civilization has certain inescapable obligations to its citizens, among which are protection of the family and the home, the establishment of a democracy of opportunity, and aid to those overtaken by disaster.

But the resolute enemy within our gates is ever ready to beat down our words unless in greater courage we will fight for them.

Hillary Clinton is a conservative, although she tries to claim she's an "incrementalist," which isn't as bad as a reactionary. Her policies are very much like updated versions of Thomas Dewey's, Wendell Willkie's and Alf Landon's. It is Bernie, not her, who is part of the mainstream of the Democratic Party. Please consider helping his campaign with a contribution at this Blue America ActBlue page or by clicking on the thermometer: