“Freedom vs. Socialism”?
Where does Bela “Bill” Suhayda get these ideas? Does he pull them out of his backside and spray them with perfume so that nobody can tell how bad they smell? (See The Voice, April 18.)
The fact of the matter is that socialism is freedom. Freedom from corporate greed. Freedom from poor working conditions. Freedom from low wages. Freedom from sexual harassment. Freedom from arbitrary firing. Freedom from canceled pensions. If Suhayda had bothered to read up on what socialism really is instead of swallowing hook, line, and sinker right-wing propaganda, he wouldn’t have any problem understanding what is going on in these Disunited States of America.
To be perfectly honest, there are two kinds of “socialism.” The first kind is “national socialism” which is actually a contradiction in terms. It is the “socialism” that dictators such as Hitler and Stalin practiced whereby the means of production is owned by the State (plus a few favored corporate entities). The workers are treated like slaves and have no say in the matter of their labor.
The other kind is “democratic socialism” whereby the means of production is owned by the workers. They have all of the say in the matter of their labor. They function as CEOs and boards of directors. As such, they provide goods and services at fair prices because they are also customers, and they receive proper compensation for their labor.
I can’t speak for Wayne Johnson (he does a pretty good job of that), but I am certainly not “well entrenched on the side of Hamas.” I have called for a cease-fire and negotiations – neither of which, by the way, is palatable by both Hamas and Netanyahu – and eventually an all-encompassing “Federated Republic of Palestine.” Suhayda ignores this position, because it doesn’t fit in with his obsessive ranting and raving endlessly about Democrats in general and the Biden administration in particular. (By the way, Bela, sweetie, rattling off a string of rhetorical questions is not proper debating. You need to serve up a few real facts.) I’m not only a democratic socialist – oh, the horror! – but I’m politically independent and pleased as punch to be one.
The Chas does not hate anyone. He is disappointed, however, in most of humankind for clinging to ancient superstitions and following demagogues. He will not shout “Death to [fill in the blanks]!” Suhayda equates protest with hate speech, which is patently false. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees the “right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances.” Where this goes wrong is when a bunch of troublemakers (mostly right-wingers) infiltrate the protestors’ ranks, shout needless slogans, and cause the protestors to be arrested and jailed for daring to exercise their rights.
Are you ready for Suhayda’s latest ludicrous opinion, dear reader? He claims that the Democratic Party is pushing America toward socialism/communism, and he cites the many acts of the Biden administration as the “push.” I’m sure the average Democrat would be shocked by this notion. The Democrats in Congress are mostly capitalists; the exceptions are the four ladies in the House who make up the core of the “Squad.” If you count senator Bernie Sanders, that’s five out of 535 sitting members of the Federal legislature. Quite a “revolution,” wouldn’t you say?
The Chas is reminded of the classic 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate with its all-star cast. Angela Lansbury portrays a very conservative political animal who pushes her second husband to run for president of the United States. As it happens, she is not above blackmail and assassination to achieve her goal. Whoever disagrees with her political stance is referred by her as “That Communist!” It seems that we have a “Hungarian Candidate” in our midst, and he would replace Biden with his idol, that well-known defender of democracy and fair play.
Gadzooks (to quote the Bard)!
Just a thought.