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Letter to the Editor: Its Socialism!
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Dear Editor: "It’s Socialism!" is so often the right’s response to and criticism of new government policies or programs; it seems to be a cry constantly ringing in our ears. We are apparently supposed to think the verdict’s in. The discussion’s over. Socialism is bad, and a government program so labeled has to be opposed. And, a government espousing programs judged socialist must be opposed.

We’re supposed to think that America is all about free markets and that free markets make everything better by fostering the formation of wealth through individual effort and initiative. So, that’s what we generally espouse, free market economics. Most of the time free markets seem to work pretty well. However, you may have noticed times when free markets seemed to experience catastrophic meltdowns such as 1929 or 2007-8. Millions of able-bodied hard working people lost their jobs world wide. Companies and banks were collapsing, and people were losing their homes.

But, in the 30s Franklin Roosevelt was elected. Under his administration the government began putting money into circulation through federal work programs. It stopped bank closures and began building aspects of the social safety net that protect us today, such as the Social Security system, and it passed laws to regulate banks and other financial institutions to prevent them from involving our economy in regular economic crashes.

Then, as now, right wing politicians opposed the efforts of Democrats to fuel the economic recovery. To this day they point at World War II as the engine that lifted us out of the "Great Depression," not the intervention of the Roosevelt administration in the economy. A disinterested observer, however, might assert that the war spending was governmental intervention in the economy on steroids and strengthens the argument that government intervention in the market is a rational alternative to allowing its collapse and the human suffering that collapse entails.

Today we are recovering from another collapse. Today a Democratic administration is struggling to institute policies to fuel the recovery, and today, as in the 30s, the "Party of No" is opposing the administration at every turn with the cries of "Socialism!" and "Deficit Spending!."

But, we have to remember that, according to the Constitution, the government is instituted by us to serve us. Through our government we undertake to do as a united citizenry those things that we cannot accomplish as individuals. We build roads, firehouses, police stations, schools, water systems and armies. We impose taxes and pay them to support our undertakings. We generally accept the rightness of these efforts.

Today, as in the 30s, the privately driven economy is coming out of an economic collapse because of our efforts through our government to get the economy going in spite of the opposition of "the party of No."

People can call it "socialism," if they like; but it’s working. And, it beats doing nothing, or putting more money in the pockets of the wealthy in the vain hope that somewhere along the way some will "trickle down" to the rest of us.

Right-wing policies in business and finance drove the world into economic collapse. Those policies in political opposition to the Obama administration are prolonging the misery. It would be madness to return the reins of power to their hands regardless of the fear engendering name they attach to the policies of the Democrats. The fact that we have an administration willing to work for us is all that gives us hope.