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Populist Reform of the Democratic Party

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merrily

(45,251 posts)
Thu Jul 23, 2015, 04:35 AM Jul 2015

Just realized: Two of my prior OPs show that most Americans are Democratic Socialists. [View all]

Last edited Thu Jul 23, 2015, 05:50 AM - Edit history (2)

http://www.dsausa.org/

1, "What the hell is an avowed Democratic Socialist anyway?" was the title of one of my OP's

I never knew a thing about Democratic Socialists until I did a bit of research about Democratic Socialists for an OP. As soon as I posted the OP, I tiptoed into DU's progressive socialist group and asked if they would please comment and some of them did -- great comments, too.

I learned that it is a movement, not a party and that it believes on working (a) through the Democratic Party and (b) within the basic framework of capitalism. I learned that a DUer is one of the founders of the Democratic Socialists of America. I learned that the New Deal, the Fair Deal and the Great Society can probably be described as Democratic Socialist-type domestic programs. FDR, Truman and LBJ collectively held the White House for 26 years and, perhaps as importantly or more so, FDR was considered responsible for Democrats: controlling one or both Houses of Congress for a very long time.

If you want to learn more:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12806844 (please do not skip the great replies)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Deal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Society





Okay, but how can I claim most Americans are Democratic Socialists? Well, someone kept electing FDR until he died. Someone elected Harry Truman despite two challenges from within his own party (one of them because he had integrated the military); someone made Social Security the "third rail" of US politics, someone loves them some Medicare, unemployment insurance, etc. And.......


2, "Let's talk polls" was the title of another of my OPs. It was about polling on issues, not Presidential polling.

When polled on issue after issue, without labeling the issues as Democratic, or Republican, or conservative or liberal, the majority of USians poll leftist, sometimes by majorities as great as 80%. These are not polls of Democrats, mind you, but polls of USians of all political views.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12777036

And people wonder how "an avowed Democratic Socialist" whom few outside of Vermont had heard of has been filling convention centers on a shoestring budget?

Please see also, my post in the Bernie Sanders Group about this post, aka my merrily meta post. http://www.democraticunderground.com/128028964#post2

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