LOADED WORDS - A BETTER DEFINITION

In Jamison Lebreton’s editorial Loaded Words, posted to his Blog Independent Opinion on July 31, 2009, he defends the word “socialism”. He postulates that “When deciding if something should be socialized you first ask if it is something that everyone should have access to. If it is something that should be denied to no one, such as schools, then the government should socialize the structure letting everyone pay for it out of taxes and then provide access to everyone at no additional costs.” As I have said before, are not shelter and sustenance things “everyone should have” and that should be “denied to no one”. Then, by applying Mr. Lebreton’s logic, should these necessities not also be provided to everyone at no cost!

I would like to point out that socialism is not interchangeable with communism and we agree that socialism is not necessarily a threat to democracy, at least not initially. There are governments that acknowledge the role that democratic socialism plays in their governments. You are correct, Socialism is a threat to capitalism, and then, after capitalism has been displaced it becomes a threat to the democratic process.

True communism is not a threat to anything and has never really existed except possibly on the plains of Africa or among other groups of nomadic hunter-gatherers where all are equal and all in the group share equally in the spoils of their daily travails. There are no “rulers”. I suppose it would be kind of like direct electronic democracy with no elected government… MOB RULE!

Today people use the word communism to refer to a form of government in which the state operates under a one-party system and declares allegiance to the ideology of Marxism-Leninism. In accordance with Marxism-Leninism, the constitutions of these countries claim that all power belongs to the working class, that a democratic dictatorship of the proletariat has been implemented within their borders, and that they are building socialism, with the goal of one day achieving communism. But one just has to look back at the incident that took place on June 4th, 1989, referred to in the United States as the Tiananmen Square massacre and in China as the June Fourth Incident, to see that the power does not belong to the working class but instead remains within the iron grip of the ruling class.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics self destructed and now those former soviet republics are embracing capitalism and a more democratic form of government which include property rights. Our highways and bridges have been the subject of much discussion in mainstream media and with our country’s lawmakers because they are in such bad shape. Our public education system is in the news daily from local reporting to national news with the general consensus being that the U.S. is falling behind the rest of the world. In a piece posted to the cbsnews.com site on September 13th, 2005, tells us that among adults age 25 to 34, the U.S. is ninth among industrialized nations in the share of its population that has at least a high school degree. In the same age group, the United States ranks seventh, with Belgium, in the share of people who hold a college degree. By both measures, the United States was first in the world as recently as 20 years ago.

Lastly, I take issue with his statement “...the U.S. armed services have been successful, socialist societies for over 200 years.” I would argue that the U.S. Military is the property of the United States Government and is under the control of our duly elected President and the Commander in Chief, and is a necessary tool of our democratic and capitalist way of life. I would also submit that those patriotic and brave enough to serve their country in this manner have sworn an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies both foreign and domestic. In other words, the brave and patriotic men and women of the U.S. Military will give their lives to protect your first amendment right to freedom of speech!