The House of Representatives voted by an overwhelming margin on Thursday to condemn “the horrors of socialism.”
The House of Representatives voted by an overwhelming margin on Thursday to condemn “the horrors of socialism.”
It’s obvious that the real targets are politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But instead of explaining what’s wrong with popular democratic socialist policy proposals like Medicare for All or eliminating tuition at public universities, most of the resolution is wasted on denouncing the real or alleged “horrors” committed by authoritarian dictatorships with no resemblance to anything advocated by democratic socialists.
The text is a mess. It’s full of bad history, sloppy definitions, and extreme libertarian rhetoric. It reads to me like the work of nervous ideologues who worry that the s-word is losing its power to terrify ordinary Americans.
What Happened to Medicare For All?
Rewriting History
The resolution starts by claiming that “socialist ideology necessitates a concentration of power that has time and time again collapsed into Communist regimes, totalitarian rule, and brutal dictatorships.”
If your understanding of “socialism” comes from vague memories of the Cold War, it might be easy to nod along with all of that. But what does it mean?
