Posted on Feb 8, 2019
Is it "Democratic Socialist" or "Social Democrat"?
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I am wondering if this is me or if generally the definitions are mixed up among the U.S. Electorate / Politicians. I always thought a Democratic Socialist thinks Capitalism is evil and cannot exist in any form with Socialism whereas a Social Democrat believes in Capitalism with some reforms in the social areas. I tend to think I have the more common interpretation because both the PM of Denmark and the PM of Sweden have corrected Bernie Sanders in stating they are actually "Social Democrats" versus Democratic Socialists. BTW, both Denmark and Sweden are Constitutional Democracies. Anyways another main tenet is that Democratic Soclalists believe that all means of production are in public vs private hands. Which means all manufacturing is Nationalized which we don't see in the countries that Bernie Sanders point to. The major companies are still privately owned and most are publicly traded on stock exchanges. So I am curious do the Democrats have the wrong title and are they meaning to say "Social Democrats" instead of "Democratic Socialists" ? Or are my definitions incorrect?
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Posted 6 y ago
Responses: 6
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SPC Erich Guenther
LOL, yeah, one thing not mentioned is all the Social Democratic countries in the world really envy our GDP growth rate. Further the largest country population wise that is close to us that attemped a managed economy was China and the Soviet Union, they both waste far more money and are far more inefficient then we are in the United States with resource allocation.
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1SG (Join to see)
SPC Erich Guenther - *unless you're talking about health care or education, where we are far more inefficient with our tax dollars.
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SPC Erich Guenther
Capt Gregory Prickett - Never said they were, if you read carefully I said they were the largest countries comparable to the United States that tried or still have a managed economy.
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SPC Erich Guenther
1SG (Join to see) - China's health care standards are well below ours, so are Russias. If we took either system and moved it to the United States there would be significant political upheaval. Smaller countries population wise probably have more efficient health care systems I just cannot find a country with over 100 million in population that has a one payer system with standards of quaility the same as the United States. Education is a crap shoot. I think Germany spends far less on education than we do and gets much better results but again the German system is well beyond education and is really a safety net for cradle to grave career management plans gone wrong than it is purely education system. However if you look at educational systems in India, Soviet Union, etc. Might be equal to us in up to Bachelors degree but a Russian or Indian Masters Degree I don't feel is up to par with an American one in most cases. They have some campuses where it is close but I still feel they fall short.
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It's called branding and they are using the entire population as a focus group. They will continue to alter the "brand" until people stop shuddering. There is no difference, it's still authoritarian socialism which always leads to venezuela, cuba, et.al.
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SPC Erich Guenther
Yeah thats politics. What I get a chuckle over is Bearnie, I mean C'mon the guy is from Vermont. I could take him more seriously if he had a larger or more diverse electorate but he is not much bigger in politics than a small suburban mayor.
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Socialist Democrats = capitalism leveraged for egaltarian and social benefit of people and a participatory democracy.
Democratic Socialist = Working people run the economy for the good of the many, not enrichment of the few. (Socialism)
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are what most folks think when they hear socialism.
From their webpage.
DSA is the largest socialist organization in the United States. We believe that working people should run both the economy and society democratically to meet human needs, not to make profits for a few. We are a political and activist organization, not a party; through campus and community-based chapters, DSA members use a variety of tactics, from legislative to direct action, to fight for reforms that empower working people. (Google this name, they have a website)
From Wikipedia.
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic ideology that supports economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a liberal democratic polity and capitalist economy. The protocols and norms used to accomplish this involve a commitment to representative and participatory democracy; measures for income redistribution and regulation of the economy in the general interest; and welfare state provisions.[1][2][3] Social democracy thus aims to create the conditions for capitalism to lead to greater democratic, egalitarian and solidaristic outcomes.
Democratic Socialist = Working people run the economy for the good of the many, not enrichment of the few. (Socialism)
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are what most folks think when they hear socialism.
From their webpage.
DSA is the largest socialist organization in the United States. We believe that working people should run both the economy and society democratically to meet human needs, not to make profits for a few. We are a political and activist organization, not a party; through campus and community-based chapters, DSA members use a variety of tactics, from legislative to direct action, to fight for reforms that empower working people. (Google this name, they have a website)
From Wikipedia.
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic ideology that supports economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a liberal democratic polity and capitalist economy. The protocols and norms used to accomplish this involve a commitment to representative and participatory democracy; measures for income redistribution and regulation of the economy in the general interest; and welfare state provisions.[1][2][3] Social democracy thus aims to create the conditions for capitalism to lead to greater democratic, egalitarian and solidaristic outcomes.
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Cpl (Join to see)
Either "brand" still elect their leaders who, without direct opposition, devolve into dictators. History is the best teacher which is why we need to get the intolerant book-burning, anti-free speech democrats out of the schools.
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SPC Erich Guenther
So I can't see the United States ever voting for Democratic Socialism and Nationalizing all our major businesses. We are still light years away from that and doubt we would ever openly vote for it. Social Democracy I can see a move towards that happening and in some cases it has happened in certain spaces.
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1SG (Join to see)
SPC Erich Guenther No, that's not going to happen, nor is it being proposed by anyone in Congress. Trump make the statement regarding socialism during his SOTU address to appeal to, and trigger, his base, and people too stupid to know better.
Although most of his claims of knowing more than anyone else on the world about most any issue are likely a result of grandiosity, I concede he is the world's expert on manipulation through media and speech, as well as the world's most profound evocatur, fabulist, psuedologist, prevaricator, equivocator, fabricator, and teller of terminological inexactitudes.
Although most of his claims of knowing more than anyone else on the world about most any issue are likely a result of grandiosity, I concede he is the world's expert on manipulation through media and speech, as well as the world's most profound evocatur, fabulist, psuedologist, prevaricator, equivocator, fabricator, and teller of terminological inexactitudes.
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SPC Erich Guenther
1SG (Join to see) - Yeah exactly and if he fixed and addressed that part of his personality he would be a decent President instead of a walking cartoon character.
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