Subscribe to Breaking NewsRuby-Sachs: A comeback for socialism
, 365gay blogger 10.23.2008 3:49pm EDT
Looks like the scary “s” word might well be coming back. McCain’s hero, Roosevelt is accused of being a socialist in this Slate story. McCain loves a socialist? Greenspan loves regulation? What is America coming to?
Were it not for decades of Cold War people would be far less paranoid about socialism than they are here. I wonder how many people in America know that Bush’s former best buddy Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of the U.K., leads the British Labour Party, which is in fact a member of the Socialist International, a global organization of socialist political parties?
If we’re talking about the war against socialism. America truly stands alone. Only Americans would react to the word with such illogical and irrational horror. And it doesn’t help that U.S. politicians always erroneously conflate “social democracy” with Stalinism and Maoism. In fact, moderate socialist and Third Way parties – such as those which predominate in Europe – are generally respectful of democratic institutions. And they’re quite capable of delivering stable, functional government.
Officially socialist parties currently rule: the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Hungary. Parties affiliated with Socialist International are also junior coalition partners in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
A really great irony is that right now Spain’s banks are actually in decent shape because when Franco died in 1978 the Socialist government that came in slapped them with all kinds of regulation that prevented the kinds of shady accounting other banks employed to conceal how badly off they really were.
Unfortunately Americans are conditioned to react to the word “socialism” with images of Lenin, Stalin and the USSR. That Americans are also largely ignorant of foreign politics doesn’t help. They have no idea how many mainstream Social Democratic parties are in power in countries with whom we have good relations.
But politics in America is all about one-word identification of threats whether it’s “Muslims” or “Socialists” or “Gays”.
Daniel this is for you from Reuters:
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By Paul Day
MADRID, Oct 22 (Reuters) – The Spanish government’s 30-50 billion euro fund to buy assets from banks will be available to all major lenders, including credit firms linked with car makers and supermarkets, a government spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
The fund will favour banks and loan companies that are most active in the country’s credit market, according to a preliminary proposal under discussion between the main Spanish political parties, an Economy Ministry spokeswoman said.
The Financial Asset Acquisition Fund will acquire high quality assets from lenders as part of a coordinated European effort to provide liquidity to a financial sector paralyzed by the global credit crunch.
The fund could include lenders associated with automobile companies as well as consumer chains such as the supermarket Corte Ingles.
Spain’s lenders include the banks and regional savings banks which jointly hold over 80 percent of total loans, as well as co-operatives and consumer credit groups which have no deposit facilities but lend directly to consumers.
France and Germany also announced on Tuesday that their own rescue packages will go beyond banks and include all credit agencies.
In Spain, new car registrations plummeted 32 percent in September from a year earlier, the fifth consecutive month of declines and leading to a accumulated drop in the first nine months of 22 percent.
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Sounds like they’re in fine shape!
… And Yes, Socialism is bad.
Yes, socialism is a terrible ideal, and I don’t think of the Soviet Union when I think of socialism. I think of millions of moochers who reap the benefits of my hard work and money to get welfare and health care when they have done nothing to deserve it. Sorry to break it to you guys, but being human isn’t an automatic qualification to receive my help.