In the Winter 2019 issue of the socialist magazine Jacobin, currently read by every hip socialist, Peter Gowan outlines an aggressive socialist plan if Bernie Sanders wins the 2020 election. This is just a snippet but it should frighten you:
One of these mechanisms should be legislation that mandates a ratcheting increase in worker ownership and control of major companies...
If we are thinking about how a Sanders administration might introduce a democratic heartbeat which gradually increases the level of economic democracy around the country on an automatic basis, even if one or more of the institutions of power falls to opponents, a law of this sort could be an incredibly important tool for resetting the default state of economic development, away from greater privatization and towards socialization. What were considering here are residual policies which aim to introduce a rising baseline of economic democracy in those parts of the economy that are not covered by our specific policies that aim to rapidly socialize or eliminate key sectors or firms...
Companies like Aetna and Blue Cross Blue Shield will not be brought under workers control through a gradual transition...they will be eliminated entirely...
A socialist administration should ideally be socializing finance through controls on capital mobility, public banking and a national investment bank; and bringing fossil fuel companies immediately into public ownership and phasing out their polluting activities by 2030 as proposed by the Green New Dealers.The socialists aren't playing around, keep in mind that to them economic democracy means socialism and the takeover of private businesses, in some fashion, by "society."
They are going to try and grab as much power as they can through the front door but anything they can't get that way, they will try via the backdoor, whether Bernie is elected or not.
Bernie is a long shot to win the presidency but this won't stop them.
The socialists are energized right now. It is a very dangerous time.
-RW
I missed the part where city-folk are sent to rural areas to become farmers, and farmers are sent to the city to become city-folk.
ReplyDeleteNo matter---I've always wanted to dabble in farming; I don't know anything about it, but learning how to feed the nation will be fun!
The famine learning curve... not so fun
DeleteDon't forget the part where they send those who protest to "reeducation" camps or extermination facilities. We can't have people getting in the way of, well, "the people".
DeleteThe thing about the socialists is that at least they seem to have the courage of their convictions. On the other hand, the anarchists and libertarians who are constantly in a state of anxious, reactionary panic do nothing to inspire confidence, much less curiosity.
ReplyDeletePolitics is essentially the working out of the delusion that we can control the minds and lives of people we do not like or with whim we disagree. Political socialism is therefore an internrally consistent proposition. Political libertarianism or anarchism, suffers from the fact that it is an inherent contradiction.