America Needs A Reformation Of Democratic Socialism

If our government is really of the people, by the people, and for the people, America needs a reformation of democratic socialism.

This sounds scary after years of American politics demonizing socialism, but is it really?

The practical philosophy of democratic socialism is merely an acceptance that individual people and companies will never solve global warming; end rampant poverty; build the nation with infrastructure and public education, defend the country and protect national interests; patronize professionals toward curing diseases and stunning scientific discovery; make sure our basic water, air, and food do not kill us all; etc. etc.

No private solutions to these problems can create the profit incentive needed to fix our problems as a nation, and even if private companies or individuals would take the time and effort to solve these problems the privatization of national interest would make things worse: like a company charging us for the air or drinking water it cleaned up, or the already existing case of miracle drugs costing way too much for families to afford to save their loved ones. Democratic socialism is a resistance to allowing human rights to become economized.

Meanwhile, it is pretty obvious that supply-side, neoliberal capitalism does not foster the ethical individuality that conservatives have promised for thirty-five years. Laissez-faire economics has turned into “fuck-everyone-that’s-not-me” economics.

Conservatives in government and free-market business imperialists (is there any difference between the two anymore?) do not even try to pretend that wealth will trickle down anymore, and our political system has turned into a self-financing nobility, not unlike a political class out of a medieval history book. Politics is increasingly a rich person’s game, and increasingly a profession with hereditary succession, which only further entrenches our American nobility. This is the destruction of our democracy before our eyes.

Democratic socialism, calling merely for an improved safety net at the largely insignificant expense of people who have already profited wildly from our inequalities of wealth is hardly a radical revolution, but a reformation we need. Capitalism is still the name of this game, just with forward thinking toward the social casualties of a profit-driven economy. Bankers, insurance companies, and energy companies can still get filthy rich, but they’ll have to help the victims of their economic collateral damage.

American democratic socialism can be the ideal that people are made more important than profit.